SMALL GALLERY

May 23 – June 21, 2025

Samantha Willes

As a human I have always been curious and full of questions; I love to understand and appreciate ideas and objects as well as people…

I began making art as a child, loving to create miniature gardens and write ‘terrible’ poetry. As a teenager, I studied sculpture and then went on to complete an undergrad in 3DD Design, specialising in metal work and jewellery, which honed my fine detail skills! I made small-scale 3D items for about a decade, some of which were purely decorative and others that embodied stories; I was always more motivated by pieces that had a story. The limitations of the material however caught up with me, and I switched to creating 2D pieces, enjoying the immediacy and freedom of painting, pastels and ink. In 2002, I spent a year in the Poitou-Charente producing just a body of paintings inspired by the plants and stories of the area.

Fast forward another 10 years and I enrolled in an MA programme, compelled by the need to tell my own story. There I discovered a series of artists and writers, including Salcedo and Cixous, who became surrogate mothers, and tutors who acted as midwives in bringing me to a space where I could ‘speak’ through making. Using diverse materials and processes: fabric, wood, sugar and fire to found materials and plaster, along with copper plate etchings, creative writing and film, I was able to explore the myriad sensations held within. When people asked what kind of work I was making, I described it as a form of ‘visual poetry’ – hopefully less ‘terrible’ than the ones written as a child! While there is a distinct narrative to this body of work, available within the literature, my intent is to first allow the listener/observer space to engage with it independently.