Woody De Othello’s “Some Time Moves Fast, Some Time Moves Slow” is a large-scale bronze depicting a seated, hunched figure, embracing a clock. Resting on the figure’s shoulder is a telephone receiver, positioned as if a call is in place. The work relates to the nebulous nature of time, a consistent theme in Othello’s practice. It was conceived at the height of the pandemic, when days merged into weeks, and social interaction was relegated to devices. It was then that tender moments of connection were of utmost importance for the survival of isolation. Othello’s practice questions how human experiences are manifested through the objects that surround us: clocks suggest temporality; air conditioning units and fans reflect breath and life force, and rotary telephones are a reminder for us to communicate our feelings.
Woody De Othello (b. 1991) is a Miami-born, California-based artist whose subject matter spans household objects, bodily features, and the natural world. Everyday artifacts of the domestic tables, chairs, television remotes, telephone receivers, lamps, air purifiers, et cet era—are anthropomorphized in glazed ceramic, bronze, wood, and glass. Othello’s sense of humor manifests across his work in visual puns and cartoonish figuration. “I choose objects that are already very human,” says Othello. “The objects mimic actions that humans perform; they’re extensions of our own actions. We use phones to speak and to listen, clocks to tell time, vessels to hold things, and our bodies are indicators of all of those.” Othello’s scaled-up representations of these objects often slump over, overcome with gravity, as if exhausted by their own use. This sophisticated gravitational effect is a central formal challenge in his work. Informed by his own Haitian ancestry, Othello takes interest in the supernatural objects of Vodou folklore, nkisi figures, and other animist artifacts that inspire him.
Recent solo exhibitions include Karma, New York (2022, 2019); John Michael Kohler Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (2021–22); Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco; Nina Johnson, Miami (2020); Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2020); San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California (2019). His work was included in Quiet as It’s Kept, the 2022 Whitney Biennial. De Othello’s work is represented in the collections of the Aishti Foundation, Beirut; Baltimore Museum of Art; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Rennie Collection, Vancouver; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California; Seattle Art Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.