Hey There Stranger,
2025
In Hey There Stranger, a Black youth appears mid-stride, their body stretching past the canvas as if testing the limits of the space that holds them. Subtle echoes trail behind, registering a motion that is both physical and spectral. The aerial viewpoint - drawn from distorted Google Earth scans - introduces a terrain where domestic structures buckle and tilt, creating an uneasy backdrop for the figure’s forward pull. Color shifts and geometric fractures signal the instability of digital seeing, marking the tension between representation and distortion. Rather than resisting this fractured field, the subject seems partially absorbed into it, their pale eyes hinting at a quiet merging with the environment’s glitches. The work frames movement not as escape, but as an ongoing negotiation of presence - a steady recalibration of body, image, and the unstable grounds through which they pass.
VAT included / excl. shipping.
Artwork is printed edge-to-edge. No white borders or framing are included.
Tyler Cala Williams (b. 1996 Trenton, New Jersey) is an American artist based between New York and Savannah. A graduate of Parsons, The New School (BFA Photography, 2020), Williams creates surreal self-portraiture and imagery charged by their community and culture, through using digital software like Photoshop to address appropriation in Western traditional art movements and the nuances of the subjugated Black.
Williams describes their practice as a process of remembering: memories that, like photographs, are both truth and construction. In their words, “I believe the surreal scenes I create are like the act of remembering. It looks far removed from reality because memories are never really fully truths. I believe memories are tricky and are like photos in their reliability. They are both representations of something. So for me, the dreamlike quality of my work is from my memories taking new forms.”
