Frances Willoughby
Spanning sculpture, textile, collage and installation, Frances Willoughby’s work evokes the body in it’s physical and cultural dimensions and is concerned with the metamorphoses of the human form. Her artwork pushes the sculptural possibilities of bodily representation to interrogate the way we understand and relate to important aspects of human experience such as anxiety, relating, memory and trauma. Driven by a desire to make objects and images, Willoughby gives tangible form to her memories, fears and thoughts. Her collage work, tapestries and sculptural objects reveal the themes to which she returns time and again and the broad range of materials that preoccupy her. In her work we can trace references from multiple sources: the atmosphere of David Lynch’s films, Surrealism, the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein, the intimate sculptures of Alina Szapocznikow as well as personal memories and emotions. Art making is Willoughby’s personal way of negotiating the world in which she lives in, a means through which to respond to the emotions of everyday.
Her soft sculptures act as an intimate record not only of her memory, but also of her own body. Willoughby constructs narratives from disparate parts, merging opposites, playing on contrasts and reconciliating differences. Stuffed fabric, wire and plaster are some of the materials she uses to create fetish objects like Knots, 2019 and anthropomorphic representations of limbs, breasts and torsos. The three-dimensionality of her sculptures heightens the reality of her work. Engaging with real space, allows for a different way of making art as well as a different kind of engagement with the viewer.
Protruding from the floor, hanging from the ceiling or fixed on the wall the body is presented here in a state of continuous metamorphosis. Rupture, 2017 portrays a double female body in a traumatic state. Stuffed with fabric it’s position is awkward. Despite the heightened phycological tension of the work, there is a sense of control and balance, hovering in a position between extreme tension and relaxation. In works like Bad Breast, 2019 Willoughby introduces items of the real world, such as pins and needles, for expressive effect. In sexually charged and provocatively explicit images, we witness female breasts pierced with acupuncture needles. There is a psychological symbolism of needles and their magic power at play here: that of repairing damage, of healing.
From her exquisite sculptures to her grandmother’s tapestries of recent days, the last body of work reveals Willoughby’s preoccupation with fabric as a material for work in two and three dimensions, giving her work another layer of personal meaning. Her creations show a vocabulary of evolution, metamorphosis and indeterminacy. The restorative power of the needle and the act of sewing renders visible the human body’s experiences of pleasure, pain, trauma, and inevitable decay. The act of physically doing and undoing the stitches becomes a method of healing from personal trauma and a ritual to navigate the purpose of the work itself. The self and other are constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination. Ultimately, Willoughby’s works become environments where everyone can change and be transformed; a self in a continuous state of metamorphosis, set free, brimming with possibilities.
Education
New Platform Art Professional Development Programme 2021.
Arts University Bournemouth BA (hons) Fine Art (1st Class).
Work Placements and Internships
2021– 2022 PAPER Arts, Bristol, UK. Board of Directors.
2018 – 2020 Ginkgo Projects, Bristol, UK. Assistant.
Awards
2023 Artist Bursary, Artist Network (a-n).
2023 Research and Development Bursary, WEEVA.
2021 Developing Your Creative Practice, Arts Council England.
2021 The Eaton Trust, Artist Bursary.
2021 The Gane Trust, Artist Bursary.
2021 Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust, Residency Funding.
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Telling Tales, Phoenix Gallery, Athens, Greece.
2023 Dream House, Centrespace Gallery, Bristol, UK.
2022 The Sky Which Is Beyond, CURIO, Bristol, UK.
2021 Lost and Found, TOD Gallery, Kent, UK.
2019 When Things Fall Apart, Helmut Gallery, Leipzig, Germany.
2017 Showroom 1600, Arts University Bournemouth, UK.
Artist Residencies
2023 Phoenix Gallery, Athens, Greece.
2021 Hawkwood College, Stroud, UK.
2021 Co-, Studio Based Creative Development Project, St Anne’s House, Bristol, UK.
2019 Helmut Gallery, Leipzig, Germany.
Group Exhibitions
2023 Glasgow International Photo Competition, Sogo Arts Gallery, Glasgow, UK.
2022 Glitch, 44AD Artspace, Bath, UK.
Alone/Together, The Station, Bristol, UK.
2021 The Absurd, Fubar Collective, The Crypt, London, UK.
Text Me When You Get Home, The Impulse Movement, Online Exhibition.
Distanced Domestic, Co-Curation, London, UK.
Threshold, D Contemporary, London, UK.
The Playful Turn, Espacio Gallery, London, UK.
Saturation, Cultivate, Online Exhibition.
Art as a Response to Mental Health, Doncaster Art Fair, Online Exhibition.
2020 Why?, Cultivate, Online Exhibition.
Assemblage, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath, UK.
REALLY//REAL, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath, UK.
2019 CurAte, Les Fetes Galantes, London, UK.
167 Annual Open Exhibition, RWA, Bristol, UK.
The Contraband Collection: Bristol Edition, The Latch, Bristol, UK.
Art Meets Play, Thought Foundation, Gateshead, UK.
Eye of the Lens, Unit 6 Studio & Gallery, North Yorkshire, UK.
36 Exposures, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath, UK
2018 Red Room Experience, The Bristol Improv Bar, Bristol, UK.
5ft Tall Capsule Vending Machine, VANDEL/. UK.
Chapter 1, The Old Biscuit Factory, London, UK.
FBA Futures 2018, The Mall Galleries, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London.
2017 V. Serious Art Show, Bournemouth, UK.
Free Range, London, UK.
2016 Unbound, Espacio Gallery, London, UK.
467 Characters Long, BUMF, Bournemouth, UK.
Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol, UK.
Dada Lives!,The University of Cincinnati’s Blue Ash Art Gallery,?Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.
SÉANCE : A Family Collection Revisited,?Russell Cotes Museum and Gallery, Dorset, UK.
2015 Cultures of Nature, Bandstand in Bournemouth Lower Gardens, UK.
Curatorial Projects
2021 CO-, Studio Based Creative Development Project, St Anne’s House, Bristol, UK.
2016 SÉANCE : A Family Collection Revisited, Russell Cotes Museum and Gallery, Dorset, UK.
2015 Cultures of Nature, Bandstand in Bournemouth Lower Gardens, UK.
Publications
Willoughby. F, Artist, Presence: Performance and the Self Portrait, Aldobranti Fosco-Fornio (2023), September.
Willoughby. F, Artist, soft core, Rebecca Orr, (2022), December.
Willoughby. F, Artist, Artful Memories: How to create unique art with old photographs, Jane Chipp and Jack Ravi, (2021), December.
Willoughby. F, Artist (2021), Forget Me Not Press #1 (October), London, UK.
Willoughby. F, Artist (2021), Threshold, D Contemporary, London, (Exhibition Catalogue).
Willoughby, F, Artist (2021), Superpresent (June). Texas, USA.
Willoughby, F, Artist (2021), The Working Artist: V (May).
Willoughby, F, Artist (2020), Haus-a-rest Zine, Issue 7 – The Mental Health Issue (November).
Willoughby, F, Artist (2020), Penny Thoughts #39 (November).
Willoughby, F, Artist (2020), Average Art (February), London.
Willoughby, F, Artist (2019), Art Reveal Magazine (December), London.
Willoughby, F, Artist (2017), Wotisart? #9 (December), London.
Willoughby. F, Artist (2017), The V. Serious Art Show, Northlight Studios, Arts University Bournemouth (Exhibition Catalogue).
Willoughby. F, Artist (2016),SÉANCE: A Family Collection Revisited, Russell Cotes Museum and Gallery, Bournemouth (Exhibition Catalogue).
Willoughby. F, Artist (2015), Cultures of Nature, Bournemouth Emerging Arts Fringe (B.E.A.F), Lower Gardens Band Stand, Bournemouth (Exhibition Catalogue).
