Minisode: 2024 Whitney Biennial Artist Kiyan Williams in Conversation with Whitney Youth Insights Leaders

08/05/24 • 11 min

In this minisode, teens from the Whitney's Youth Insights Leaders program interview 2024 Biennial artist Kiyan Williams. Williams has two artworks in the 2024 Whitney Biennial: a large sculpture of a neoclassical building made of brown soil that appears to be sinking into the ground, and a shiny chrome sculpture depicting the gay rights activist Marsha P. Johnson. The teens talk to Williams about what the sculptures mean especially when seen together and at this particular moment in time.

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial
Know a teen who might be interested in the Whitney’s programs? Learn more and apply now: https://whitney.org/education/teens/youth-insights
See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=66

Previous Episode

Minisode: People Who Stutter Create on their 2024 Whitney Biennial Artwork

Today we hear from five artists who together form the collective People Who Stutter Create. For their contribution to the 2024 Biennial, the group mobilized the Whitney’s exhibition billboard at 95 Horatio Street, across the street from the Museum and the south end of the High Line. The artists, all of whom stutter, created a public artwork that celebrates the transformational space of dysfluency, a term that can encompass stuttering and other communication differences. In this minisode, we hear from all five artists about their artwork titled Stuttering Can Create Time.
More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial
See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/people-who-stutter-create

Next Episode

Minisode: 2024 Whitney Biennial Artist Holly Herndon in Conversation with Whitney Youth Insights Leaders

In this minisode, teens from the Whitney's Youth Insights Leaders program interview 2024 Biennial artist Holly Herndon. The conversation explores how the artist's identity and creative process are influenced by artificial intelligence (AI). They talk about the ethical use of AI, if AI can elicit an emotional response to art, and the evolution of the art world to include machine learning models as an art form. Visit the Whitney's portal to Internet and new media art, artport, to enter Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst: xhairymutantx, a project that focuses on training data behind AI models, opening new possibilities for its use.
Explore xhairymutantx: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/xhairymutantx
More about the Biennial: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial

Know a teen who might be interested in the Whitney’s programs? Learn more and apply now: https://whitney.org/education/teens/youth-insights

Artists Among Us - Minisode: 2024 Whitney Biennial Artist Kiyan Williams in Conversation with Whitney Youth Insights Leaders

Transcript

Teen Narrator:
Hi! Welcome to a special podcast minisode from the Whitney. My name is Sia and I’m a Youth Insights Leader, along with Renata, Celise, Alannah, Sasha, Kathleen, and Zuzu. We’re part of an after school program where we work with artists in the Museum’s exhibitions. For this year’s Biennial we interviewed artist Kiyan Williams about their two sculptures on the Museum’s terrace.

One sculpture is a huge, slanted, neoclassical building covered in