Christine Willcocks

Interview by Nadine Abensur

Christine Willcocks is an award-winning artist and printmaker residing in the rainforest near Byron Bay. Her art focuses on the natural world’s demise and renewal, drawing connection between past and present, death and life, history and the preservation of memory. She leads workshops nationally, including at the Byron School of Art, in Mullumbimby.

Nadine.  In the context of your concern for ecology and the preservation of our natural resources, the act of drawing, in the meticulous way that you do, seems a tribute to the majesty of flora and fauna. Would you please describe how you approach the practice of drawing, and the feelings and thoughts (or no thoughts) that accompany you in your process?

Christine.  The love of observational drawing has been with me from a very early age, consistent throughout my life.  For as long as I can remember I have been able to replicate the observed through drawing. The act of drawing is wonder, the feel of the graphite on paper. The pressure applied to create tone is where the true magic happens. I can’t say that I think of anything in particular when I’m drawing. It’s the same for most painters — you’re in the zone, transported to an unknown destination, a meditation of sorts. Drawing and the natural world make for a perfect fit. They are the two places I feel most comfortable. Having said that, I certainly don’t like sitting too comfortably for too long. I need to shake it up and make it interesting, not just for me, but also for the viewer. I’m definitely not interested in skill alone.

Nadine.  Much of your recent practice has focused on rigorous preservation of objects, lives, and memories lost, whether you are referring to artefacts of war, a dying tree, a dead bird, an old photograph, a museum vitrine. Are you rather pessimistic or optimistic about the future? 

 Christine.  It all sounds so depressing. I’m very much a person in the moment, and I have asked myself these very questions, as I do not have a strong recollection of my past. As a child I lost a great deal, and I think I have put my past memories on hold. I needed to find beauty in death to make sense of my life, and I did. I’m not talking about the act of dying, as that is different again — but the renewal of life through death is nature’s way. I’m very attracted to the monochromatic world of the past. It has a clarity and beauty that I can reflect on.  The future … well, I don’t go there very often … I don’t see the point as it’s mostly wishful thinking. In the present I can get things done. I would have to say I’m pretty much the optimist. 

Nadine.  Do you experience any conflict between your environmental concerns and your capacity as a creator of more objects, more “stuff”?

Christine.  Yes, there is always conflict. I use a lot of found objects in my work that sit along newly created objects, and believe me, the older I get, the less I like “stuff”. I like to think perhaps the objects I create are imbedded with the power of association, where the object becomes invested with an intimate and/or emotional value. Perhaps that is a naive undertaking on my part, but that’s what we do as humans … we create objects, we always have. It’s when objects are consumed in the false belief that they will bring us happiness … that is where they can fail.

Nadine.  Is the natural world central to your practice? In what ways is it central to your life outside the studio? 

Christine.  No, the natural world is not central to my practice, the process is … but it is central to my life. I live in the rainforest and have done so for the greater part of my life — it is what grounds and sustains me. My work usually responds to place. Sometimes that is the forest or the ocean or a museum in Paris, London, or Berlin. I have done dead trees from India, pigeons from Spain. My favourite thing is walking by myself. Through walking I can be me, observing the world around me. I am a voyeur just looking, thinking. 

Nadine.  Do you consider your art political? Do you seek to persuade the viewer to a particular point of view?

Christine.  It could be seen to be a political act, but no, I do not start with the intention of educating or persuading the viewer. To me that is propaganda. I am simply creating work that interests me, that fascinates me, that intrigues me. I love to research and through this research it is me that is being educated, enabling me to think deeper about my subject. 

Nadine.  In the words of the famous Simon and Garfunkel song, "preserve your memory, that's all that's left to you” — is it your hope that by preserving and honouring our memories, by giving status to past artefacts, we gain respect for the present?  

Christine.  I think objects of the past are reminders for us to keep connected, and yes, to respect the past, enabling us to have a stronger, mindful and healthier present. 

Nadine.  Can you talk about the way humour affects your work? It seems to mitigate what might otherwise be a serious, if not somber, undertaking …

Christine.  I can’t stay in serious and somber undertakings for too long. It’s not my nature. It is not my intention to mitigate the viewers’ perceptions of my work. The humour acts as a release valve, allowing the viewer and myself a moment of reprieve.  

Nadine.  Your work makes frequent reference to museum collections with the glass domes and vitrines of an earlier age. Do you see yourself in the same lineage — part scientist, as well as artist?

Christine.  No, it is the aesthetic and conceptual appeal I see in the display, the act of collecting and how the display gives perceived value to ordinary objects. A glass cabinet in a museum can make a piece of dinosaur dung look very important. My mantra is not what you show but how you show it. I was very interested in Joseph Beuys’ vitrines when I saw them in Berlin. They contained very basic objects that held an importance to him and by placing them in these museum type cabinets they gave the impression of being important to us the viewer, the power of display.

Nadine.  Does this body of work deal with similar concerns?

Christine.  Yes and no. Although inspired by the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology, set in the grounds of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, I am not referencing the museum setting as such, but rather the contents of this amazing Gallery. In other words I’m fixated with rocks at the moment. I have spent these last twelve months playing, experimenting, and generally taking my time with various processes. Printmaking, and in particular monoprinting, is a way for me to find the accidental mark, and take myself out of the controlled environment of the observed.  From rocks come mountains. I will have a show next year at Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne, titled Wild Rocks and Tamed Pathways. This title refers to my residency in Paris in 2014 and my time living in the forest.

This interview originally appeared in BAM Issue #4, 2017.