Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Floor 6 Terrace

Born 1991 in Newark, NJ
Lives in Brooklyn, NY

In Kiyan Williams’s outdoor sculpture Ruins of Empire II or The Earth Swallows the Master’s House, the north facade of the White House leans on one side, sinking into the floor, and is composed of earth. The idea that earth carries history—that we root ourselves in it for meaning—is something that Williams has explored extensively in their artistic practice. Here, the labor history embedded in the dirt points to a fragility in our political foundations, while the earth’s erosion embodies a critique of institutionality at a moment when institutions are toppling. Looking on from nearby, Williams’s sculpture of celebrated trans activist Marsha P. Johnson stands as a witness to the ruination of the White House. Rendered in reflective aluminum, the sculpture’s surface also shows us back to ourselves.