Work
Willow Winston has been developing new approaches to installation, sculpture and bookart for the past fourteen years. In striking images she combines mathematical form with emotional power, experimenting with the common ground between visual arts, science and music. From miniature bookart to large-scale sculpture her uniquely structured work has an affirmative quality, full of light, space and carefully orchestrated colour.
During the past five years Willow Winston has constructed a series of large sculptures [average 3 metres high] in which the expressive possibilities of and structural demands on the materials used - steel mesh, acrylic sheet, glass paint - have been constantly extended. Although each is an integral sculpture, they are also prototypes for interior or exterior installations with projected size to 12 metres high or more. The sculptures are easy, quick and cheap to transport and erect as they are made of simple, light components.
Willow Winston is accustomed to designing to high specification, having worked with architects and architectural engineers. She is familiar with the need to conform to production schedules and safety standards, to be flexible in design and practice and to enjoy working co-operatively with the team. The demands of site-specific design are of particular interest to her.
Other materials used can include cast acrylic rod [various coloured optical material which transmits light to the rod ends to create eye-catching effects], steel and aluminium with enamelled, anodised, painted, sandblasted or silkscreened surfaces. Her studio nearTower Bridge is a mile from the River Thames, a major source of inspiration.
Concurrently Willow Winston is developing discoveries she made in bookart into large-scale sculpture. In the books metallic thread is attached to reflective pages in such a way that 3-D geometric figures appear as the pages of the book open. The crystalline forms hang tantalisingly between reality and illusion, between existence and non-existence. She recently discovered how to ‘construct’ all five of Plato’s Perfect Solids as virtual sculptures in this way.
To some examples of Willows work, please click on the images below.
