No Agenda

No Agenda is a misnomer, a swipe at embodying the improvisational nature of a rapidly assembled site-specific exhibition. There is a goal; it’s to show work by Williams College Visiting Studio Art Faculty in Town Hall along a six-week timeline, and encourage unplanned pairings of work and site. Previously a fraternity house, and now a police station and government building, this charged space complicates the personal narratives and subjects apparent in each artist’s work.

In No Agenda, Zak Arctander photographs moments of intense indecision, creating images and videos that are innocent until they’re sinister, fun until they’re concerning. Allana Clarke employs sound to fix a critical gaze on hierarchies active and latent in our governments, communities and social circles. Kim Faler pauses and preserves memories before they’re forgotten with paintings sourced from other people’s personal notes. Ilana Harris-Babou casts obsolete office technology in plaster and satirizes the forced didactic in DIY and promotional videos. Nicole Maloof creates new drawings to consider Town records and whose histories are archived, and why.

Each artist’s careful consideration of the site investigates the unpredictable, iterative and interrelated processes of making and teaching. Both have end goals, but the steps toward them are malleable as the goals themselves shift and change. The artist’s mark is often a thinking mark; process is pedagogical. 

No Agenda was on view at the Williamstown Town Hall from November 3, 2017 to December 15, 2017. Special thanks to Jason Hoch.

All photos by Grace Fan. 

📄 Catalogue design by Krista Gelev.

Exhibition covered in The Berkshire Eagle and WAMC | Northeast Public Radio.