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Shelley Wilson studied art at the Sir John Cass School and Camberwell College. She graduated with BA (Hons) in three-dimensional design and continued as a postgraduate student of anatomy at University College London and sculpture at the Sir John Cass School of Art.
Her formal training in sculpture and ceramics and early interests in photographic techniques have allowed her to experiment with combinations of different methods to capture the variable and complex three-dimensional shapes of living things. Experimentation and the unpredictable insights that arise from interactions between artistic materials and subject matter have led to several collaborative studies of human anatomy in health and disease.
Since 1995 Shelley Wilson has worked in the interstices between art and medicine, tackling head on some of the most troubling concerns of our age. She has collaborated with a wide variety of scientists and clinicians since she won the Wellcome Trust “Sci Art 97” in partnership with Professor Arthur Crisp for their work on “Female Puberty and a Search for an Identity”. Their research concentrated on the complexities resulting from the physical and psychological dilemmas of sufferers from Anorexia Nervosa. Another project resulted from her collaboration with Professor David Hopkinson, where his research into the genes, which are responsible for facial features, led to her exhibitions “Invisible Body”, “Family Faces” and “Beneath the Mask”. “Joint Account”, a site specific installation at the Old Operating Theatre, St Thomas’s Hospital, done in collaboration with Dr Armand Leroi, dealt with conjoined twins as a metaphor for life experience.
In a departure from her Sci-Art collaborations Wilson created ‘Body Politic’ which investigated the socio-political climate surrounding the general election in 2010 as subject material in a celebration of the experiences of the 150 MP’s who stepped down at that time.
2011 year Wilson has returned to her exploration of the medical condition Dementia and the effects of these conditions on the corporeal, psychological and spiritual components of an individual. ‘Self Contained’, funded by the Arts Council, is the result of research conducted for two years among the residents of a nursing home specialising in Dementia and of sharing experience with some of their families.
Never shying away from the most challenging fears of our society, Wilson’s work has been shown at wide and diverse venues in the UK and Overseas.
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1988-1989
Sir. John Cass School of Art.
Foundation.
1989-1992
Camberwell College of Art.
BA (Hons) - Ceramics
1992-1993
Sir. John Cass School of Art.
Sculpture.
University College London.
‘Anatomy for the Artist.’
2002-2003
London School of Printing, London.
Diploma in Digital Media.
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Shelley Wilson has worked with the scientific community (research laboratories, hospitals and academic institutions) for the past 10 years. This has resulted in collaborations between Wilson and various scientists, clinicians and has culminated in a series of exhibitions that have been shown at diverse venues (from Whitley’s Antrim, Guys Hospital, Royal College of Physicians, Science Museum, art galleries and art fairs). The topics have been wide ranging, from her award winning Wellcome Trust ‘Sci-Art 97’ scientific partner Prof. Arthur Crisp with their project ‘Female Puberty and a Search for an Identity’ that dealt with the complexities of psychological dilemmas of sufferers of anorexia nervosa, to her collaboration with Prof. David Hopkinson, whose research is to try and locate the genes that are responsible for facial features. The fruits of this last collaboration are: ‘Invisible Body’, ‘Family Faces’ and ‘Beneath the Mask’.
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Shelley Wilson’s work combines the three disciplines of ceramics, sculpture, and photography. She is exploring expressive forms of visualization, experimentation, and interaction between materials and subject matter, taking inspiration from the physicality and psychology of the human form. Her concerns are with the complexities of the mind and body and how they interact. Perhaps more importantly Wilson is searching for, and attempting to categorize and present, a ‘reality’ beyond the scientifically measurable.
Wilson’s drive to create artworks derives from her desire to document an analysis of a moment in time in the life of an individual. Looking beyond the presented form she records the deeper emotions of life that is so often concealed from the gaze of the observer. Using clay Wilson explores the duality of our life experiences and in particular to expose the individuals’ unique fragilities and strengths. To create the illusion of a solid form Wilson pinches the clay to the limit of its tolerance. This illusion is then developed through the lens of a camera creating a 2D image this is then manipulated resulting into a 3D form, once again. In this way Wilson creates a reference to the tension between both the opposing qualities of strength/fragility freedom/confinement life and death, with the ultimate reference being to our illusion of control over our lives.
In order to extrapolate these observations from the immediate to the general human experience, Wilson eschews the notion of titles such as ‘Portrait of a standing Woman’ and uses the catalogue numbers used by the laboratory in which she worked during her Sci-Art collaborations. In this way she is able to disassociate sufficiently from the individual and observe them also as a laboratory subject matter. In so doing she seeks to re-assert their individuality in terms of their psychological mind-set.
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2007 Joint Account Arts Council Award
2006 Artbeat Allen & Overy - Winner
2005 Artbeat Allen & Overy - shortlisted.
1997 Winner of Wellcome Trust SCI-ART 1997 Competition.
Scientific partner Prof. Arthur Crisp.
‘Female Puberty and a Search for an Identity’.
Residences
2006 Kings School, Guterslosh, Germany.
2006 Artbeat.
2005/6 MRC. Galton Laboratories, London.
1999 MRC. Galton Laboratories, London.
1997/8 Atkinson Moreley Hospital, Wimbledon, London.
Conferences
25th April 2007
British Pain Society Conference, Glasgow.
Paper: 'Body of Pain'.
29th & 30th June 2005
University of Wales, Cardiff.
Fragmented Figure Conference: Paper ‘Figuratively Speaking’.
September 1997
Wellcome Trust, London.
Sci-Art 97 Conference: Paper ‘Female Puberty and a Search for an Identity’.
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Press coverage
Joint Account BMA, 10th March 2007
Joint Account BMJ, 3rd March 2007
Intellectual Challenge Ceramic Review, Jan/Feb 01.08.06.
Subjective/Objective Art & Science collaboration, A.N. March 2000.
Metro Life, 24th January 2000.
Hotshoe Magazine, Nov/Dec 1999.
The Lancet, Vol 351, Dissecting Room, 21st March 1998.
Therapy Weekly, 5th March 1998.
Insight - The London Institute, 19th February 1998.
Essential Art, Big Issue, March 26th 1998.
‘Drawing on Real Experience’, Independent on Sunday by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, 14.12.97.
‘The Body Beautiful’, Giles Newton, Wellcome News Q4, 1997.
Nature Magazine, May 1997.
In The Mix, Artist Newsletter by Paul Scott, July 1996.
Times Literary Supplement, ‘Materia Medica’ by Oliver Reynolds, 2.2.96.
Focus, January 1996.
Harpers & Queen, ‘Calendar of Events’, January 1996.
Art Review, December/January 1996, p32.
Hampstead & Highgate Express, ‘Materia Medica’ by Linda Talbot, 24.11.95.
The Big Issue, No. 113, January 16.22.95.
Television
Imagine – Surrealism, BBC, 29 May 2007.
Tonight, BBC London, 10 April 2007.
‘Future Face’, London Tonight, October 2004.
Ever-Wondered, ‘Self Image’, BBC Open University, June 2001.
Big City, Carlton TV, January 1995.
Catalogues and Books
Joint Account. The Old Operating Theatre & Herb Garret, London, 2007
Future Face. National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan, 2006.
500 Figure in Clay, Larks Books (USA), 2004.
Future Face. Sandra Kemp, Science Museum, 2004.
Treat Yourself, Ken Arnold and Tim Boon, Science Museum, 2003.
Southwark Festival 2000, ‘City Lines’ Exhibition, Guys Hospital, 2000.
Changing Minds Campaign brochure, (Anorexia and Bulimia) Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1998.
Insight Exhibition Catalogue, Montage Gallery, Derby, 1997.
SCI -ART 1997, Wellcome Trust, 1997.
Art ‘96, The London Contemporary Art Fair, 1996.
Materia Medica, Ken Arnold & Martin Kemp, Wellcome Trust, 1995.
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