Lucy Willow

Senior Lecturer subject specialist in sculpture

I joined the BA Fine Art team in 2012 as senior lecturer with subject specialism in sculpture and am currently head of level 2  (2023) which has a strong focus on creative communities of practice. This model of practice has been explored pedagogically through Café Morte (2014) a research group established with colleague Mercedes Kemp, students, academics, and artists. As a group we met regularly, each member leading a critical debate or discussion starting with an object, artwork, film, or text to generate a series of questions and ideas relating to death. Curated exhibitions include Lost for Words, Falmouth Campus exhibition space (January 2016) and The Tears of Things (February 2017) The Exchange Gallery, Penzance.  In 2020 I set up a small organisation and research group DUST from an old shop in Penzance. DUST contains a collection of artifacts many of which are broken. The shop is an artwork inviting visitors to tell their stories, to share experiences of grief through the lens of the objects displayed. DUST collaborates and works with artist, students, and researchers to create a platform where death, loss and grief can be considered.

Publications

  • Treggidden, Katie, Broken, Mending and Repair in a Throwaway World, 2023
  • Clough, Alice, A Catalouge of Failures, issue 3, 2023
  • Holman, Martin, Art with Soul, DRIFT, 2023

Published work includes 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)

External Links

Contact details

Telephone 01326 213844
Email lucy.willow@falmouth.ac.uk
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    Qualifications

    Qualifications

    Year Qualification Awarding body
    2003 BA Fine Art Falmouth College of Art
    2012 PGCHE Falmouth University

    Research Interests

    Research interests and expertise

    DUST contributes to the field of death studies by exploring the multifarious ways in which bereaved people express loss, often drawing inspiration from global, multicultural traditions ranging from a belief in reincarnation to animism and participation in the Day of the Dead. The project is motivated by a twofold interest in: first, how people make visible their loss through an interaction with objects; and second, how this interaction often involves artistic creativity, or the crafting of memory onto objects, materializing loss.  Death has been described as the edge at which all narrative ceases. Words, image making, and sound emerge from this powerful darkness. My research explores through creative practice the ongoing relationship we have with the dead and how they continue to influence our lives.

    In 2021 I was commissioned by Cornwall Council and Turn Consultancy to work with five families effected by drug and alcohol misuse to create The Art of Grief bereavement stories which used video, photography and recorded narrative to create 5-minute digital journals describing experiences of living loss and grief. I am interested in creating a material presence for the ‘dead’ through working with dust, memorial debris, objects, sound and installation to create a space where communication can take place between the dead and the living.

    Research Topics

    • death
    • liminal space
    • loss
    • melancholia
    • transience

    Research Outputs

    Publications and research outputs

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2022), DRAWN FROM THE WELL, In: Drawn from the Well, November 5-26 2022, Grays Wharf Gallery, penryn

    • Whelan, Gregg and Tuukkanen, Johanna Tuukkanen

      (2019), ANTI Contemporary Art Festival 2019: Death, In: ANTI Contemporary Arts Festival 2019: Death, 10-15/09/2019, Kuopio, Finland

    • Willow, Lucy and Kemp, Mercedes

      (2017), CAFE MORTE: TEARS OF THINGS- MUSEUM OF BROKEN OBJECTS, In: Tears of Things, February 2017, Newlyn Art Gallery and the Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall, (Unpublished)

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2016), AIP GAFA (Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art)- Falmouth University International Collaboration and Solo Exhibition, In: Interlude, 19th March - 17th April 2016, Redtory Art District, Guangzhou, China, (Unpublished)

    • Willow, Lucy and Kemp, Mercedes

      (2016), CAFE MORTE: LOST FOR WORDS EXHIBITION, In: Cafe Morte: Lost for Words, January 2016, Falmouth University project space- Falmouth campus, (Unpublished)

    • Mcleod, Neil, Kemp, Mercedes and Willow, Lucy

      (2016), Lost for Words Exhibition, In: Lost for Words, January 2016, Falmouth University

    • Salkeld, Nicola

      Rudolph, Ashley, Willow, Lucy and Falmouth Art Gallery, (2014), Memento Mori, In: Memento Mori, 15 May 2015, Falmouth Art Gallery

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2014), FALLEN: A SITE RELATED EXHIBITION, In: Fallen, April 12 2014 - June 01 2014, KESTLE BARTON RURAL CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, (Unpublished)

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2018), At Sea Again: creative bereavement project, In: At Sea Again, creative bereavement project, 16th - 23rd July 2018, Lamorna Village Hall, Clarence House Therapy Centre, Dog and Rabbit Cafe, (Unpublished)

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2018), At Sea Again: A Drop in the Ocean, In: Remember Me The Changing Face of Memorialisation, 4-7 April 2018, Hull, UK, (Unpublished)

    • Willow, Lucy and Kemp, Mercedes

      (2016), CAFE MORTE: LOST FOR WORDS, In: MOTH; TALKS IN THE FACE OF DEATH, January 08 2016, Falmouth University, Falmouth Campus, (Unpublished)

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2014), Under The Influence: The Silent Creek at Low Tide, In: Under The Influence, 07-07 Mar 2014, CAST (Cornubian Arts & Science Trust) Passmore Edwards building, 3 Penrose Road, Helston, Cornwall TR13 8TP, (Unpublished)

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2016), THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH: A MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF TRANSIENCE, MOURNING AND LOSS., In: Malady and Mortality Illness, Disease and Death in Literary and Visual Culture, Cambride Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 283-289, ISBN: 1-4438-9010-3

    • Salkeld, Nicola

      Rudolph, Ashley, (2016), MOTH Talks: In the Face of Death, In: MOTH Talks, 8th January 2016, Falmouth University

    • Willow, Lucy

      (2023), M(OTHERHOOD), In: M(OTHERHOOD), 21,22 APRIL 2023, TATE ST.IVES

    • Willow, Lucy and Bigbury Mint

      (2023), The Unfurling Fern, In: The Unfurling Fern, award ceremony, 20th April, 2023, The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society

    Teaching

    Areas of teaching

    • Drawing
    • materiality
    • sculpture
    • site specific installation

    Courses taught

    • Fine Art BA (Hons)