BimROCK Magazine Issue #3 Black | Page 10

ronald williams Photography: Rachelle Gray H E MAY LOOK QUIET BUT MULTIMEDIA ARTIST RONALD WILLIAMS SURELY TALKS HARD THROUGH HIS ART. THE TWENTY-FOUR YEAR OLD HAS A VISUAL MESSAGE THAT IS QUITE CUTTING. His education is two-fold, a graduate of the Barbados Community College (BCC) Bachelor of Fine Arts degree programme and a lifetime of mass-media consumption. Roll that up in some independent thought; set alight with the fire of youth and you are smoking on some biting pieces of visually suggestive artwork. Playing on his interests in race and sociology, Ronald’s current work explores the role that sports and the black athlete/figures play in society; placing an emphasis on the perceptions and stereotypes about the ‘black image’. A fan of many physically competitive sports, Williams began to pay greater attention to contemporary branding techniques, which pertained to the black athlete in particular. This exploration caused him to query racial and cultural divisions as well as the ideas of fame, celebrity/ hero-worship, consumerism, and identity. His collages contemplate popular culture while acknowledging sport as a microcosm of the greater society. Through the technique of digital collage, popularbased imagery is manipulated to compose images, which range from artwork in ancient civilizations, images from a time of institutional racism and black power symbols, to speak about a multiplicity of issues. Williams forces the work to be self-contradictory as well as present conflicting ideologies. A finished piece takes the shape of a sportsman, onto which society’s perceptions, stereotypes and fantasies about the black athlete, are projected. Final presentations of the work are in the form of largescale prints and sports cards, thereby appropriating the concept of the athlete as a commodity. The end result is a satire of our obsession and exploitation of the black athlete/figure, society’s fascination with the ‘celebrity’ and the separation of races which ignorance perpetuates. The following pages features samples of his work described in his own words. www.facebook.com/RonaldWilliamsArt 10 | BIM ROCK | SPECIAL FEATURE