Zara June Williams

Of Many Unbroken Threads

Threads of thought stretch back and forward in time

a convergence of paths imagined and real.

Unassuming until you witness the fabric take shape.

Feel it now, not necessarily soft to touch

a string of complexities unfolding.

It is told only with my whole body.

Unbroken threads persist, having survived the severing.

Together they weave this story to form what is not fully understood.

Enough time spent asking how and why.

Such things cannot be looked at directly unless wearing special glasses.

– Zara June Williams

COMA is pleased to present a solo presentation, titled ‘Of Many Unbroken Threads’, by Sydney-based artist Zara June Williams, on view 4 March – 2 April, 2022 in the gallery. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with COMA.

Made in part on one side of the hemisphere and fully realised on the other, these paintings straddle time and place. Drawn to practices that mimic the labyrinth that exits both inside and outside our heads, Zara June Williams’ exhibition Of Many Unbroken Threads is the result of various interlocking and overlapping conversations.

These works speak to that fear in knowing the volatile nature of our realities. A fear well articulated by Lila, a character in Elena Ferrante’s novels, who once overwhelmed rushes to explain that the outline of people and things are delicate and porous, constantly meshing and mixing with their surroundings. Everything to her has dissolving boundaries.

Zara June Williams

These works evolved over a year spent in limbo, from a period marked by pending change and seemingly endless purgatory. They hold within them the contradictory desire for both change and stability. Together they stand as an attempt to further understand and accept such a time.

Made to feel lived in and touched, like objects sharing space rather than windows into other worlds, these paintings are the result of a direct dialogue with the artists body. They reflect the chaos within that underlies the illusion of order. Extending beyond the traditional boundary of the frame, they speak to what cannot be contained.