Carl Joe Williams

03/07/2026

01/25/2026

Soul Transmission 2014 Mixed Media Video sculpture
This work was created some time ago, and I had nearly forgotten about it. Years back, it was
acquired by .dorsey. I’m pleased to share that it will soon be on view at the Bo Bartlett
Center as part of the upcoming exhibition, “We Are the Drum and the Scribe: Black Art in
America Collection.”
In this mixed media sculpture, the television screen becomes a site of conflict between symbol
and reality. By painting directly onto the glass, I create a static barrier through which a loop of
archival footage spanning from the Jim Crow South and Martin Luther King Jr. to modern life in
the inner city must pass. The painting literally colors the narrative, forcing the viewer to peer
through the "official" symbols of Americana to see the lived human experience playing out in the
background. It is a meditation on how systemic structures paint overlay and obscure the fluidity
of Black history.
paintedscreen
sculptureart contemporaryartist carljoewilliams