Christopher Williams opens For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société Industrielle (Revision 18) at David Zwirner, London, this Friday. Running 17 May until 15 June, the exhibition is a critical investigation into the medium of photography and the nature of industrial culture. Williams studied at the California Institute of the Arts under the first wave of West Coast conceptual artists, including John Baldessari and Douglas Huebler, only to become one of his generation’s leading conceptualists.

His intriguing and often colourful photographs, uncover the process of image capturing. Using the system of reproduction as a starting point, Williams manipulates the conventions of advertising, the superficiality of surface, and ultimately the history of Modernism. Deeply political, historical, and sometimes personal, the photographs are meant to evoke a subtle shift in our perception by questioning the communication mechanisms and aesthetic conventions that influence our understanding of reality.

Living and working in Amsterdam, Cologne and Los Angeles, Williams’ work is both stunning and provocative, asking his audiences to question the previous perceptions of image capturing.

Christopher Williams: For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société Industrielle (Revision 18), 17 May – 15 June, David Zwirner, 24 Grafton Street, London W1S 4EZ.

Credits
1. Linhof Technika V fabricated in Munich, Germany. Salon Studio Stand fabricated in Florence, Italy. Dual cable release. Prontor shutter. Symar-s lens 150mmm/f 5.6 Schneider kreuznach. Sinar fresnel lens placed with black tape on the ground glass. Dirk Sharper Studio, Berlin, June 20, 2007 (2008).