Reply by Abbey Williams (2017)

The central footage in this work is documentation of the artist’s encounter with a group of rowdy white women at a coastal bar. They prompt Williams to join them in singing along to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre,” drunkenly misremembering her name as they chant and encourage her. Flashing intermittently is archival footage of Black performers on stage and distorted sound bites from songs like Little Richard’s “Hound Dog.” 

The text that fades in and out are quotes from the comment section of a viral 2015 YouTube video from a Texas pool-party incident where a young black woman, Dajerria Becton, was violently restrained by a police officer. One of the comments reads, “A bunch of out of control Nigglets...” 

By including herself in their work, Williams exposes herself to a spectator gaze, paralleling her situational visibility with that of a complex history of the Black body as a contested subject.