Kimberly Willcox
Sculpture-Dimensional Studies
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Artist Statement
Traumatic events and hereditary elements play a role in how our identity and body take shape but, are these factors also inescapable: is our parents' history a prophecy of what will also limit us? I am interested in how the economic and societal conditions of previous generations impact both the living and those yet to be born. Through my artistic practice, I confront the difficulties within my own experience in an attempt to find softness and empathy in a family that copes with mental illness. My work brings attention to damaging cycles that come from attempting to ignore or bury trauma.
These cycles come from reliving memories only to be consumed by them, despite how inaccurate memory can be. The setting of a memory is indivisible from the recollection process therefore, as I deal in familial histories, I see the use of domestic space is integral to my practice. In order to maintain family relationships as my subject, I utilize domestic space and light as material, either by paradoxically creating that environment within a gallery or by choosing to respond to a found space. Similarly, I curate these installations and performances with found objects that contain emotional and temporal context. When combined with more traditional sculptural practices, like metal, glass or performance, these elements illustrate inexplicably distorted, yet enduring memories that affect our most complex relationships.
The seen and unseen body as a subject allows me to address these interpersonal relationships. This provides these spaces with a presence and emotional weight. Through my performance work, the seen body becomes a vessel that endures the traumas, both experienced and inherited, through the labor. In other cases, the body is absent, but their trace implies that we hold space for them in our lives, for better or worse. My artistic practice is engaged with finding understanding in challenging relationships that hold this type of complexity. Through the use of space, materiality and body, I transform these habitual ways of dealing with trauma into moments of reflection that can lead to empathy, inherently beginning a new cycle of healing.
Biography
Kim Willcox is an independent, multi-disciplinary artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She pursued her BFA in painting with a minor in art history and chemistry at Tyler School of Art at Temple University. There, her work moved in between the worlds of sculpture, drawing and painting, eventually culminating in her decision to pursue an MFA in Sculpture and Glass at Alfred University.
The subject matter of her MFA Thesis circulates around confronting past trauma, coping mechanisms and finding healing in difficult relationships. After receiving her degree, Kim is interested in continuing her investigations in materiality of light, found objects and the body in her home neon and flameworking studio in Philadelphia.
![A 8 foot by 8 foot enclosed room with wood trim stands in the askew in center of a gallery. The left wall is the backdrop to a parlor type room with a carpet, armchair and side table. The center wall has three-dimensional text that faintly emerges from the surface. The right wall has a blanket fort containing two neon forms that faces a tube television connected to a video game.](_images/01willcox_kimberly-660x471.jpg)
Show Overview, Works from left to right: Inherited and Insidious; I’m Sorry You Feel (in) That Way; You, I and Us
![From the back of the 8 foot by 8 foot room, the left wall has a blanket fort with two neon figures in it facing a small tube television playing a video game. The center wall is a life scale projection between two empty picture frames. The projection is of a fist-sized hole being patched with layers of spackle and family photos. The right, far wall is the parlor type room with an upholstered chair that has the back burned out of it.](_images/02willcox_kimberly-660x440.jpg)
Show Overview, Works from left to right: You, I and Us; Bad Patch; Inherited and Insidious.
![A round, white kitchen table is centered in front of a wall with text on it. The text reads: “Welcome, As you enter this show, be aware that this work may be challenging. Trauma is a core element and should not be taken lightly. I encourage you to explore discomfort, but if at any point the experience is too overwhelming, please give yourself space. I understand that I ask a lot with this work because I asked it of myself first. With Warmth, K” On the kitchen table are fourteen small, colorful glass worry-stones evenly spaced.](_images/03willcox_kimberly-660x471.jpg)
(Above) Letter to the Viewer (A Trigger Warning) // 4 x 3 feet // Vinyl, Artist’s Handwriting
(Below) Transparency // 2 x 1.5 inches // Fused glass pieces for the viewer to take with them
![A close angle of the worry-stones. Their bruise like colors and patterns pop against the white table.](_images/04willcox_kimberly-660x471.jpg)
Transparency // 2 x 1.5 inches // Fused glass worry-stones for the viewer to take with them
![A close up of spackle built up in the form of handwriting that reads “I’m sorry you feel that way”](_images/05willcox_kimberly-660x471.jpg)
I’m Sorry You Feel (in) That Way // 8 x 8 x 8 feet // Spackle, Artist’s Handwriting, Drywall, Paint, Wood Trim, Sound
![A cream-colored, wing-backed chair on an ornate rug with a wooden, octagonal side table and lamp. The side table also holds a crystal candy dish and two empty picture frames. There is a pink floral pillow on the chair and a wooden sewing box on the lower level of the side table. There is a thin layer of yellowish dust on the furniture. The lamp turns off after 3 minutes and turns back on after 2 minutes on a loop.](_images/06willcox_kimberly-660x471.jpg)
Inherited and Insidious // 10 x 4 x 6 feet // Found Objects, Light, Time, Dust, Ash // 5 min
![The back of a wing-backed chair that has been burned away. The damage does not extend beyond the back, hiding it when looking at the chair from the back. There are three layers of upholstery can be seen in the damage.](_images/07willcox_kimberly-660x440.jpg)
Inherited and Insidious // 10 x 4 x 6 feet // Found Objects, Light, Time, Dust, Ash // 5 min
![Two empty picture frames sit on either side of a life scale projection of a hand patching a hole in drywall. The fist-sized hole is filled in with layers of photographs and spackle.](_images/08willcox_kimberly-660x440.jpg)
Bad Patch // 28 inch projection // Spackle, Family Photographs // 7 min // Watch on Vimeo
![A surface of carpet holds a tunnel shaped blanket fort faces a CRT TV connected to a video game system. Inside of the fort, bright light emanates from neon forms. At the back of the fort, a viewer peers through the opening.](_images/09willcox_kimberly-660x471.jpg)
You, I and Us // 10 x 8 x 12 feet // Blankets, Pillows, Wood, Carpet, Glass, Neon, CRT TV, Nintendo Entertainment System // 5 min
![A view from the smaller opening of the fort. The neon forms are placed over glass forms and their three dimensional shape is similar to the legs of a cross-legged child. The forms face the TV which has “Donkey Kong Country” playing on the screen.](_images/10willcox_kimberly-660x440.jpg)
You, I and Us // 10 x 8 x 12 feet // Blankets, Pillows, Wood, Carpet, Glass, Neon, CRT TV, Nintendo Entertainment System // 5 min