An exhibition showcasing work-in-progress created by Honey Williams during her artist residency at City Arts.
Being a big black woman feels like being a brutalist building, vandalised, used, abandoned and torn apart but being expected to continuously repair yourself, survive without funding, keep the masses happy and be grateful that you escaped demolition… today.
Honey Williams
Honey’s new body of work is a collection of large scale self-portraiture that explore desirability politics, anti-blackness, fatphobia, intersectionality, misogyny, mental health and power.
The current anti-fat bias in the in the United States and much of the West was not born in the medical field. Racial scientific literature since at least the 18th century has claimed that fatness was “savage” and “black”.
Sabrina Strings, Fearing The Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia
“BLACK: Today” is part of Saziso Phiri’s CATALYST programme for City Arts.
About the artist
Honey Williams is a creative powerhouse. She is a singer-songwriter, a visual artist and designer. In 2019, Honey was invited by the British Council to travel to Kingston, Jamaica. She was the lead artist for ‘Paint Up Yuh Creative Space’. The project worked with the local artistic community to create a mural honouring the Windrush Generation. Honey was one of 50 artists, selected from 700 applications, to exhibit at New Art Exchange’s 2019 NAE Open. She won the Public Choice Award for her piece ‘Big Black Truth’.
Recently, she has created work for New Art Exchange and the BBC, as well as running creative workshops for Green Hustle and National Justice Museum.
As a singer-songwriter, Honey has performed and collaborated with recording artists from all over Europe. Notably, she performed at the 300th Anniversary of Karlsruhe, Germany. She is the Director of an alternative choir, The G.O.A Choir.
Honey is the founder and moderator of ‘THE PICKYHEADS’, an online space with over 11,000 members. It focuses on increasing the love for women of African descent through discussion, art and events.
