Stephen Willats

3 panels, each 155cm x 78cm
Photographic prints, photographic dye, ink, acrylic on card, DVD film

‘While working in Milton Keynes in 2006 – 2007, Willats came into contact with a woman living on another estate who had moved there not long before and was in the process of rebuilding her life. He was struck by how she had invested herself in the local community. She had become a catalyst for many aspects of social life with her neighbours and Willats worked with her to record how she saw things on the estate. The resulting work, Starting Afresh With A Blank Canvas shows several different ways of approaching her surroundings. It reflects upon three aspects: firstly, the deterministic conditions of her life there, such as the various kinds of pressures she experiences; secondly, the everyday objects that she identifies with various aspects of her life; and thirdly, the community work she does on the estate. This builds up a layered representation of what she is actively doing to effect a transformation within her life in relation to her community and environment. In each stage links are forged through diagrammatic lines and arrows, showing the ways in which these elements are inextricably connected, with one state affecting the other.’

From Spaces of Interaction, Emily Pethick, in Stephen Willats Art Society Feedback, pub. Badischer Kunstverein, 2010