Bill Woodrow

One thing that really shocks me is that before I looked up Bill Woodrow's picture, I assumed he will be a mid aged British sculptor through his work. Surprisingly, the artist is already 72 years old and it makes me surprised because you can see the young creativities and full of artistic breath within his work.

There are a lot of artists making art with found objects but somehow I can see different potential with Bill's work. Most of them will just gather readymade objects as a collection, add or cut off elements from the objects. However, I think he gave the work he made new definitions and meanings successfully. He often featured a narrative element, plus, he is not interested in being a political artist as he says from an interview video, those characteristics of him and his work make me feel quite relatively and wanting to know more about Bill. He turned the household objects into large consumer goods while their original structures could still be discerned. Bill cuts portions out f them and reattached the parts to the main structures so that they appeared to be connected through umbilical cords. The feeling his work gives me is just very vivid and lively.

Bill Woodrow - Sculptures 1981–1988 | Waddington Custot

A work had reminded me the work I'd think of before eventually didn't make it out. The first one is called Elephant,1984, the colours of the metal remain vivid in Elephant, the paint has worn away in some areas revealing the original silver of the panels prior to their painting. The art historian John Roberts has even described Woodrow as an ‘urban rag-picker and scavenger’ who habitually trawled the streets of Brixton and Peckham to find materials for his work. The concept of the work might not be similar to mine however, it inspires me to continue develop the following idea:

The idea of this is about Africa's social issue and I wish people can be reminded how well their life is right now and just keep in mind nothing comes easily.

Overall, there are many techniques I really want to learn and develop from him. Also now I learned that there's a thing call photographic sculpture which I'll definitely try in the future may be with few photographs I took.

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