joseph scissorhands: Aubrey Williams: Future Conscious

Sunday 23 July 2023

Aubrey Williams: Future Conscious

Symphony No. 4, opus 43 (Shostakovich), 1981

"The work in this exhibition has come out of a rankling core anxiety that has grown for a long time, regarding the quality of life on our planet." - Aubrey Williams.

To October Gallery once again whilst in the area to see this posthumous exhibition of the paintings of Aubrey Williams created from the early 60s to the late 80s. Wiliams was born in Guyana and lived for two years in the remote north-eastern rainforest of the country, working with the indigenous Warrau people, from whom, he insisted, he learnt everything necessary to the practice of his art. He trained as an Agricultural Officer and as such was attuned to the environment and ecological systems which would later inform elements of his artwork. On moving to London in 1952, Williams discovered the work of the American Abstract Expressionists whilst enrolled at St. Martin's School of Art. The paintings in this exhibition Future Conscious are colourful, textural abstracts which combine the influence of abstract painting with the landscapes and teachings of his Guyanese roots, as well as classical music and William's interest in astronomy and the stars. Williams studied south American culture which led to him painting his Olmec-Maya & Now series, and he concluded that the Maya had destroyed themselves in an ecocidal expansion that had devastated their natural habitat, bringing the whole civilisation to an end. Williams saw parallels with the way in which modern man is treating the environment poisoning the seas with plastic, destroying the Amazon forests, repeating the same mistakes but on a much greater global scale.

'I say we are involved in making the Maya mistakes. The Maya civilisation could not keep up with its technology, and the technology took control of the environment and destroyed it. We are doing the same thing today. We are fast running behind our technology.'

The paintings and William's thoughts on the matter are certainly prescient given the prevailing concerns about the state of the environment with wildfires burning out of control in parts of America and Canada, and the current fearsome heatwaves in America and Europe which have seen temperatures reach unprecedented levels.