Second 2013 OYASAF Fellow, Jessica Williams researches Lagos photographers, artists

At the Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), in Maryland, Lagos. Jessica Williams’ research has taken led her to visit numerous galleries, exhibitions, and artists’ studios.

Jessica Williams. PHOTO BY OGUNTIMEHIN ARIYO

Her research has focused on Lagos photographers (both established and emerging), as well as artists (such as Kelani Abass) who have manipulated and included photographic images in their more recent works. She is currently planning a number of small projects in response to the call for paper submissions for the 16th Triennial Symposium on African Art, organized by the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), to be held at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in March of 2014. Among these projects is an investigation into the concept of the series and its role in documentary photography; an examination of the shared experiences of the city and subsequent Lagos photographers’ representations of the urban context; an interest in the ways in which artists, across mediums, have presented the surfaces of Lagos in a manner which excavates its historical depth; and the turn to the archive by Lagos artists in their representations of African identities.

While Williams’ current research in her PhD focuses on the work of Nigeria’s contemporary artists, as an art historian she recognizes the importance of acquiring a sound knowledge of the nation’s wide breadth of artistic practices across periods. Because of this, she is extremely grateful for the access provided by Prince Shyllon to his immense collection of works and vast library as she continues to expand her knowledge of Nigerian art in preparation for her qualifying exams and dissertation research.

  Jessica Williams commenced her graduate studies in modern and contemporary African art at the University of Maryland in 2011. Her recently completed master’s thesis examines the discourses of belonging in South African photographer Thandile Zwelibanzi’s 2010 series, Still Existence. Williams successfully defended her master’s thesis in April as a precursor to her PhD program and presented her work at Iwalewa-Haus (the Africa Centre of the University of Bayreuth) this June. She is currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Critical Theory through the University of Maryland’s English department and has worked in the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture where she researched and constructed interactive maps of Africa. Her research interests include African modernisms and the study of African visual cultures with an emphasis in photography. Williams graduated with her B.A. degree in English and Art History from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2010. While an undergraduate, she studied African history and politics as well as isiXhosa at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

Although her research during her two years as a master’s student focused on the art and histories of South Africa, Williams seeks to broaden her studies in her PhD program to include a specialty in Nigerian art.