Shelley Wilson
Shelley Wilson’s work combines the three disciplines of ceramics, sculpture, and photography. She explores 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.
Maureen Michaelson Gallery was the first to show Shelley's work in public at the 1993 London Art Fair at the Business Design Centre. The work shown them was a 3D photographic installation using groundbreaking techniques incorporating photographs and glass. The photographs themselves were of individual sliced elements of clay sculptures Shelley had made. The photographic installation recreated the full sculpture which had itself been destroyed. The Gallery continued to show Shelley's work at this same Art Fair for the next few years, culminating in a three person show in 1995 and a solo show in 1996.
Shelley Wilson has worked with the scientific community (research laboratories, hospitals and academic institutions) since 1995. This has resulted in collaborations between Wilson and various scientists and clinicians culminating in a series of exhibitions that have been shown at diverse venues (including Guys Hospital, Royal College of Physicians, Science Museum, Whiteley’s Atrium, Westminster Reference Library and the Institute of Psychiatry). The topics too have been wide ranging.
Her most recent projects have been "Body Politic", a work comprising ceramic busts of all 149 British MPs who stood down before the last UK General Election. "Self Contained” explored issues surrounding dementia and its impact on the collective mental health of the sufferer and their carers. The installation consisted of wax sculptures as well as a series of photographs.
