About / CV

I am attracted to objects with absurd functionalities, designed for oddly specific scenarios. I demonstrate these functionalities as instructional performances. Using either a series of recorded audio commands or an invented notation system appropriate for the scenario at hand, these progressions of gestures, movements, sounds, or object alterations are often performed through community participation: objects for the paranoid and contagious, objects for the overly eager and underprepared, objects for the outwardly evil and upwardly mobile. I rigorously linger in the gap between the musicality of instruction of the theatricality of the mundane.

Through Sprechgesang Institute, I direct collaborative lectures, workshops, sculptural dinners, and performances to facilitate discussion of the unexpected parallels between seemingly disparate practices. The structures of these performances borrow from other field’s systems of organization and conventions, highlighting the idiosyncrasies which evolve within different lines of work.

CV:

lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
sarahkwilliams.com / sprechgesanginstitute.com / aestheticallycomplexpies.com

Education

2017 Universität der Künste, Institute for New Music, Berlin, Germany
2014 MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2010 BA, The College of William and Mary, VA

Selected Performances and Exhibitions

2025 Touching & Tasting: 9 Studies in Sensory Proximity MOFAD, NYC
2025 Ruin Your Dinner dining event, Ox-Bow School of Art, MI
2025 Perennial sculptural concert with CreArt Box, Mark Morris Dance Center, NYC
2024 ADAR Festival performance, Asturias, Spain
2024 Past and Future Pouncakes Goethe Institut Boston, MA
2023 Orientation Judson Church, NYC
2023 Evening of Snacks Food installation, Marble House Project, Dorset VT
2022 Fragile Form visual concert, The Blue Gallery, NYC
2022 The Pitting, Six-foot Platform, Dumbo NY
2022 Lachrimae: a recital by Sprechgeang Institute, Solar Antique Tiles, NYC, NY
2022 Orientation, Performance Mix Festival(with Gabrielle Revlock), Abrons Arts Center, NY
2021 
On the Upkeep of Demanding Shapes , performance, The Bronx Museum of the the Arts, Bronx NY
CreArt Music Festival, Culture Lab, Queens, NY 

2021 IDIO-MATHS: A Performative Lecture, Sprechgesang Institute, (director + performer) Five Myles, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Bronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx NY 

2021 Fulbright75 Virtual Art Exhibit, online
2021 
Lighting in the Dark, with CreArtBox, Culture Lab, Queens, NY
2021 Echolalia, (two-person show), Corridor Gallery, North Adams, MA
2021 A Year In, Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA
2021 CreArt Music Festival, online interactive performance, New York, NY 

2020 Holding Breath, NARS, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Rock Paper Scissors (S.I.) a play, zoom
2020 Perfect Fruit, opening event/performative dinner for Tiffany Jaeyeon Shin’s Microbial Speculation of Our Gut Feelings, (co-directed with Christopher Lin), Recess, New York, NY
2020 Source Material / “On the Upkeep of Demanding Shapes”, NARS, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Courses: An Experimental Dining Event, (co-organized with Sara Clugage), The Block Gallery, NYC
2019 Gestural Meditations, Target Margin Theater Institute Studios, NYC
2019 Fan Mail, (Hyperlink), Redline, Denver, CO
2019 The Line, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2018 Orchestra of Obsessions and Dissatisfactions, studios at MASS MoCA
2018 Sprechgesang Institute Vol. 1, collections at Institute of Contemporary Art Baltimore
2018 Art & Art History Alumnae Exhibition, The College of Williams and Mary, VA
2018 Asterims (exhibition co-curated with Christopher Lin), Hercules Art Space, NYC
2018 Extended Techniques a performative lecture, Target Margin Theater, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Moon, Line, Shadow: Amalgama (co-set designer with Katie Bell), Mise-en-Place, NYC
2017 The Pitting, Universität der Künst, Berlin Germany
2017 Exteriors, Universität der Künst, Berlin Germany
2017 Found Sound Research Orchestra, Urania, Berlin Germany

Residencies, Awards, and Fellowships

2025 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant, NYC
2025 Guest Artist at Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI
2024 ADAR project development residency, Asturias, Spain

2023 Marble House Projects Residency, Dorset, VT

2023 Wave Hill Winter Workspace Residency, Bronx, NY

2021 City Artist Corps Grant for Sprechgesang Institute, NY
2021 Walkaway House Residency, North Adams, MA
2020 NARS Satellite Residency, Governor's Island, NY
2020 NARS International Residency Program, Brooklyn NY
2019 Target Margin Theater Institute Fellowship, Brooklyn NY
2019 Vermont Studio Center / Fellowship, Johnson VT
2018 Artists in the Market Place at The Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx NY
2018 Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams MA
2018 Fiscal Sponsorship with New York Foundation for the Arts for Sprechgesang Institute
2017 Theater Magdeburg research residency, Magdeburg Germany
2016-2017 Fulbright Research Fellowship in Sculpture, Berlin Germany
2014-2015 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Brooklyn NY
2013 Ox-Bow Artist Residency Program, Saugatuck MI
2013 James Nelson Raymond Fellowship Grant, SAIC Chicago IL
2013 Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Grant, Chicago IL
2012-2014 Trustee Full Tuition MFA Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2012 Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship Grant, SAIC Chicago IL

Selected talks and writings

2024 Panelist on W&M Women Entrepreneurs summit, NYC
2023 Visiting Critic, Sarah Lawrence College art department, NY

2022 Food Design Voices, by Dr. Francesca Zampollo (included artist)

2022 Labyrinthus; Ergodic Scores of the postwar Avant-Garde by N. Andrew Walsh (included artist)
2021 Visiting Artist workshop, Parsons New School, NYC
2020 Library of Gestures for Anxieties and Vulnerabilities, Ginger Magazine Issue 22: Fall
2018 Artist Lecture + Workshop, Parsons, The New School, NYC
2018 Flavors and Scents in Asterisms, Hercules Art Space, NYC
2018 Visiting Curator/Artist, Residency Unlimited, NYC