Lucy Willow on death and fine art, performance art and visual culture, photographing the dead, mourning, loss, grief and artistic practice

What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Lucy Willow discuss death and fine art, performance art and visual culture, photographing the dead, mourning, loss, grief and artistic practice, as well as research and being a celebrant.

Who is Lucy?

Born in Whitstable, Kent Lucy Willow graduated with first class BA in Fine Art from Falmouth College of Art in 2003.

Willow lives and works in Cornwall and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.

Her work first received acclaim with a series of Dust carpets made on location and for specific environments, Smithfield abattoir (2005), Old Romney Church (2005), Make it Real, Whitstable, Kent (2006), Art Now Cornwall, Tate St.Ives commission (2007). In 2001 Willow won the BAMS (British Art Medal Society) award for contemporary medal making.

Willow’s photographic work was presented for the first time with a solo show at Millennium Gallery St.Ives (2009). Willow was selected in 2009, with seven artists representing Cornwall, to show in London in a project called Gloria Zoo Art 2009. In 2014 she had a solo exhibition Fallen at Kestle Barton, Centre for Contemporary art, Cornwall (April – June 2014), where she developed a body of work over a two-year period with two artist residencies. In December 2015 she was artist in residence at HERE factory in Iceland where her work was strongly influenced by the dark winter months and bleak landscape.

In March 2016 she became artists in residence in Guangzhou China as part of an arts international program and had a solo show in Redtory arts district, Guangzhou (April – May 2016). Willow presented a paper at the Malady and Mortality conference, Falmouth University 2013 Paper: The last Portrait, a microscopic view of transience, mourning and loss. Published in Malady and Mortality: Illness, Disease and Death in Literary and Visual Culture (2016) Chapter: The last Portrait, a microscopic view of transience, mourning and loss.

In 2020 she set up an organisation DUST The Art of Grief from an old shop in Penzance as a space to bring together artists, artefacts, members of the community and professionals working in end of life and funeral industries.

Lucy Willow is currently part time senior lecturer in Fine Art at Falmouth University, an end of life photographer, a freelance practitioner using creative practice to tell community stories of grief and a recently trained funeral celebrant hoping to bring artworks into funeral settings.

Find out more at:

www.lucywillow.art

www.art-of-grief.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/art_of_grief/

https://www.instagram.com/artist_lucy_willow/

Read the chapter we discuss: http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/1894/

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:

Willow, L. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 April 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.19493975

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