Susan Willis

My blogs

Industry	Arts
Occupation	Freelance artist, designer, arts administration
Introduction	Multi-disciplinary fine artist based in Hadleigh Old Fire Station, Hadleigh, Essex. I am influenced by notions of ‘place’, often place-specific and in an urban setting, my work tends to the ephemeral, existing only in the memory or recorded as a moment in time through installation, often subtle intervention and its subsequent documentation. A lifelong interest in architecture, photography and design, I use lens-based media, found and appropriated images, objects, sound and text. I am drawn to the politics of place and to the liminality of place, space and art itself; where one thing becomes another; where boundaries blur between public and private space, where congested town becomes open space, where land becomes sea and where art becomes life. My projects draw on my hometown for inspiration. Less than 40 miles from London. my home overlooks the Thames Estuary in Leigh-on-Sea. The neighbouring towns of Southend and Hadleigh are currently undergoing a period of regeneration. The Victorian seaside town of Southend, where I have grown up, aspires to be the “creative capital of the East of England”; Hadleigh recently hosted the mountain-biking event of the London 2012 Olympic Games.