SOUVENIR | FLETCHER WILLIAMS III
Donovan Davidson had the honor of co-curating Souvenir, an exhibition by Charleston-based artist Fletcher Williams III (b. 1987, American). The show delves into the layered complexities of Charleston’s cultural heritage, highlighting its contrasting narratives of beauty and decay.
CHARLESTON, SC, March 2015—Charleston-based artist Fletcher Williams III (American, b. 1987) is continuing a study on the divergence in Charleston’s cultural heritage.
Souvenir is a ceremony for the many victims of violent crimes who lived only blocks away from the city’s historic district. Williams memorializes those of the African American community afflicted by the reconditioning of the Lowcountry, a city of celebrated charm, dominant historic preservation, and architecture running the rainbow gamut. The realities of violence and social destruction are in stark contrast. As a means to represent the correlation of charm and decay Williams appropriates a local souvenir, the Palmetto Rose.
“The Palmetto Rose is infused with history and sentiment. To Charlestonians, it is a link to the past. During the Civil War, Southern ladies would give their true love a Palmetto Rose to keep them safe from harm. Today, it is sold throughout Charleston’s City Market as a souvenir symbolizing everlasting love. But at first sight, it’s the rose’s innate beauty that captures its’ spectator, not its historical significance.” - Fletcher Williams III
For, Souvenir, Williams employs the Palmetto Rose as his principal medium for a new series of multimedia sculptures and drawings. Within these works beauty and destruction are presented simultaneously, forcing the viewer into a cycle of empathy, fascination, horror, and concern. Fourteen trough-like frames have been assembled and filled with tightly woven Palmetto Roses. Within these frames lie expressively illustrated scenes of execution and combat. They are created in black ink and graphite pencil collaging pop culture iconography and African American motifs. Following the drawings, Williams constructed a series of life-sized sculptures interpreting various scenes from the drawings. From chicken wire, rusted fencing, and Palmetto Roses, emerged works that serve as objects of beauty and indicators of violence.