In "American Dreams" at Bakehouse, Sculptures Tell a Thousand Words

Jeff and Sabrina Williams

American Dreams of art like this.

​The ten year anniversary of 9/11 has everybody looking for a way to commemorate. It seems especially prevalent in the art world, where artists of all kinds are helping to voice the range of emotions that other people are feeling about America.

But there is some art that speaks about American culture without being directly influenced by the anniversary. For the past two years, Jeff and Sabrina Williams have worked together to take recycled and found materials and created sculptures. The pieces are not simple, but rather full, detailed scenes, and colored brightly. They depict stereotypical views of American life, from trailer parks, to farms, to backyard barbeques.

One man's white trash is another's treasure.

​"The way it all started was we realized that every time we traveled somewhere we didn't want to take pictures anymore, because we're photographers. We just wanted to experience it," Sabrina said.

They began sketching scenes and upon returning home they constructed models that were later photographed for the project. The figures in the models look like something out of an animated film, and the couple is often asked if they will do a stop-animation short. For now, they're sticking to stills.

"Wake Me Up."

​"A lot of the images have a story behind them, and we're trying to tell one story with one single frame," Jeff said. The stories behind the photos are sometimes even more bizarre than they are depicted. "The chicken [buried with his feet sticking out of the ground] is a true story. We were at a guy's house; he had killed a rooster and buried it upside down to teach the other chickens not to wake him up in the morning. The story behind some of these is quite interesting," Jeff said.

They don't provide written explanation with the artwork, however, because they prefer the face-to-face interaction. "I choose to rather tell someone the story when we're right in front of them," Jeff said. When he isn't around to give explanations, "it lets the story unfold in the viewers' head."

Interestingly enough, only Jeff is from the U.S. - Tennessee to be exact. Sabrina was raised in Brazil. The different backgrounds provide for a blended perspective and interpretation on what America is.

See "American Dream" at Bakehouse Art Complex (61 NW 32nd St Miami). The exhibit will feature high-resolution photos of the Williams's original sculptures. The complex opens at 12 p.m.. For more information, visit www.bacfl.org or call 305-576-2828.

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