STUDIO SCULPTURES & MAQUETTES (2021-22)
Welcome to Margot Wilson Art Studio Preview 2022. Returning to art after a break to raise my children and pursue my equal passion for philosophy and writing, I am reminded of the unique pleasure and growth that comes from creating material works. The 80’s and 90’s and early 2000’s were all about painting and bronze sculpture moving between the form of the horse and dancers, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev and copying the wood resin and bronze sculptures of Donatello. The journey though long running in truth has barely started. Rather than picking up with bronze works and due to the pandemic Covid-19 lockdowns and limited space, I turned to creating hollow sculptures and experimenting with all aspects of ceramics. I’ve also played with concrete and plaster and am excited to resume my bi-handed figure drawing practice under the mentorship of George Levantis at Heatherleys School of Fine Art..
My sculpture practice is soma-neuro-immersive using arms, legs, hands, feet, head, mouth, lips, tongue, and breath to tickle what I imagine as the sleeping octopus brain. She is blue. She is playful. She is all seeing, all feeling, and luminous. In Vajrayana Buddhist meditation this is known as diamond clear light, a complete emergence into and from luminosity. My blue octopus brain appeared to me in a meditation. Together we sense and seek to reveal the prevailing life force as She emerges forth. Drawing and sculpting, be it in clay, plaster, or the flesh, is never a singular act but an emergent, prevailing, pointed convergence of cosmic breath (prana). The focus of my current practice is the Chaveaux Caves, the drawings of Rodin and Joseph Beuys, and the plaster sculptures of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Giacometti.
My time at The Royal College of Art (MA Writing) has doubly inspired and developed my vision and now that I am expanding my studio space, 2022 is the launch of new approaches, new forms, and new finishes. The writing program was an incredible experience, pushing my performative writing practice into the realm of art. Going forward I plan to combine my performative essay writing and meditation with my sculpture practice, creating further video and sculpture installations that examine my life long obsession of life force elevation (towards levitation), the subject explored in my RCA final major project titled 'Travels With the Anxious Nerve (2022)'.
I am now returning to The RCA in September to join their Graduate Diploma - Fine Art - Sculpture programme.
Follow my work on Instagram #margot_wilson_art
My sculpture practice is soma-neuro-immersive using arms, legs, hands, feet, head, mouth, lips, tongue, and breath to tickle what I imagine as the sleeping octopus brain. She is blue. She is playful. She is all seeing, all feeling, and luminous. In Vajrayana Buddhist meditation this is known as diamond clear light, a complete emergence into and from luminosity. My blue octopus brain appeared to me in a meditation. Together we sense and seek to reveal the prevailing life force as She emerges forth. Drawing and sculpting, be it in clay, plaster, or the flesh, is never a singular act but an emergent, prevailing, pointed convergence of cosmic breath (prana). The focus of my current practice is the Chaveaux Caves, the drawings of Rodin and Joseph Beuys, and the plaster sculptures of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Giacometti.
My time at The Royal College of Art (MA Writing) has doubly inspired and developed my vision and now that I am expanding my studio space, 2022 is the launch of new approaches, new forms, and new finishes. The writing program was an incredible experience, pushing my performative writing practice into the realm of art. Going forward I plan to combine my performative essay writing and meditation with my sculpture practice, creating further video and sculpture installations that examine my life long obsession of life force elevation (towards levitation), the subject explored in my RCA final major project titled 'Travels With the Anxious Nerve (2022)'.
I am now returning to The RCA in September to join their Graduate Diploma - Fine Art - Sculpture programme.
Follow my work on Instagram #margot_wilson_art
Current Work and Practice (2022)
These terracotta works experiment with organic pigment and textures created by fired earth. Inspiration comes from the cave drawings of prehistoric Lascaux and Chauvet Caves in France and the red dust of Death Valley in America. Through the horse form I'm nesting temperature and grain, placing earth upon earth upon Earth, . These works are 15 - 25 cm tall maquettes are studies for larger sculptures and installation examining paradoxical fire that agitates, fuses and petrifies material and biological form..
By intersecting the human and animal form and studio debris (as the fall out of explosion) I aim for the work to invite contemplation on the resilience and inalienability of interiority. Examining the question ‘what emerges that cannot be destroyed?’
These are early stage 6–12-inch maquettes being fired to bisque then scaled up and developed. With this independent research I aim to explore the textures of human and animal resilience, what it is that rises, pushes back, withstands devastation and resists annihilation?
These are early stage 6–12-inch maquettes being fired to bisque then scaled up and developed. With this independent research I aim to explore the textures of human and animal resilience, what it is that rises, pushes back, withstands devastation and resists annihilation?
Sgraffito and Terra Sigilatta on Porcelain Scraps (2022)
These small, some tiny, tableaux are miniature drawings of various Muybridge photographs. Drawing directly onto the terra sigillata with a pin is proving the most satisfying experience I can describe. Though primarily a sculptor, combining 2D and 3D forms opens up a new universe to me, one I'm eager to pursue. A kind of yellow brick road made of thrown and engraved clay. Sizes range from 4.5 cm x 5 cm to 10 cm x 4 cm. These pieces are due to be fired and will be mounted on linen and wood and some possibly framed. Larger vessels are under way.
Bi-Handed Drawing Practice (2022)
As a child I taught myself to draw using both hands diligently copying images from my aunt’s History of Art magazines, a long running series from the 1950s. While watching television with my parents I would use mirrors to reverse the images, turn the magazines upside-down and draw with both hands. I developed the practice during the late 90’s and early 2000s in New York and have now returned to it, attending Open Studio life drawing sessions with George Levantis at Heatherleys Fine Art School. In both my ceramic and drawing practice I seek the minimal touch, I resist erasing and reforming as much as possible, preferring to work with what has emerged. This practice is about fluency and resourcefulness, examining the process of landing ink and clay. I view my practice as both acts of meditation and clairvoyance, intersecting critical discernment and analysis with embodied intuition. These drawings are the first of a series that I will develop over the summer at Heatherleys.
Spontaneous Terracotta Sketches (2022)
An essential part of my practice is spontaneous sketching and automatic writing. Terracotta and vulcan stoneware make great mediums for rapid shape forming. Here I am exploring the limits of incisions, tears, ruptures without breaking the form. What holds? What continues? What remains?
STUDIO ART FOR SALE 2022
Finished Artworks (2021)
