SWARM. brings together the work of Didier William and Nestor Armando Gil. Their work beckons viewers, as an imperative, to physically and intellectually “swarm” conceptions of colonialism in order to disarm such narratives of power.

The SWARM. curatorial team is sharing more about two upcoming exhibitions, SWARM. and Infinite Spaces: Rediscovering PAFA’s Permanent Collection on a dedicated Tumblr.

Tessa Haas, a curatorial intern at PAFA, spoke with Didier William in his studio about his personal history and work:
 

In 1990, a six-year-old William immigrated to Miami from Port-au-Prince, Haiti with his family. His mother and oldest brother came to Miami in the summer of 1989, followed by William, his father, and second-oldest brother the following year.

‘Initially my parents told everybody we’d be gone for two weeks, my mom had a sister Jolene who lived in Miami, but we never went back,’ he says. ‘My identity is an adopted history as a black man in this country and adapting this identity with my Haitian identity exists together,’ he continues, ‘my work deals with blackness, but there is a regionalism that I always feel sort of queasy about—I’m getting more and more specific about the cultural reference in the work.’

Intersectional identity is paramount to William’s practice as he investigates the processes of building community across diaspora, dislocation, and relocation.

Read the full interview on the PAFA Infinite Spaces Tumblr.