Williams is an artist, educator, and enrolled tribal member of The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon.
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M. Earl received a Masters of Fine Arts in Photography and a Masters of Arts in Studio Art from the University of Iowa. He also received a BFA in Photography at the University of Oregon.
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His work is shown internationally with recent cities including Rome, Los Angeles, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Denver, Portland, and Phoenix. Currently he resides in his ancestral homelands, the Oregon Willamette Valley, where he is the Multimedia Specialist for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
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Statement
My work explores how we make meaning out of the world around us. I’m interested in how we create significance to our existence as humans and the different ways we add value to specific objects. These photographs, videos, durational performances, and installations that I create ask questions like; what is our purpose in the environments that surround us? What is our imminent future if we continue down our technological path towards a more digitized world? What happened to the ideas of the myth and the miracle?
I never expect the viewer to find the answer but instead become invested in “the why” and “the what”. They are left to view the results or outcome of an event created for the sole purpose of questioning how we perceive reality. Large theoretical concepts taking the forms of simple everyday experience is a way that my work allows a simple entry into, but then a longer contemplation on further investigation.