I am Bill Wheelock. I am from the United States of America, in New England, and I am a visual artist. My work is generally based on sort of universal experiences I think that we all have. Having two eyeballs, human beings tend to focus on visual objects from an x and y axis, gridding the world into a perceivable universe of objects.

Sculpture is one of those methods that reveals to us objects which are somewhat undefined. We don’t have preconceived notions of them. Through sculpture we can show new concepts of space, whether it’s installation or objects or architecture to some degree. By visually experiencing new space, we get to reflect upon how it is we see what we see and why we see it. There is a scientific method by which we can observe the world and biologically we have been driven to see certain things depending upon our survival. Bats have developed sonar, dolphins have developed sonar, but all human beings have two eyes that track motion and see sawed objects maybe so we don’t bump into them or maybe so that we can determine if they’re edible or dangerous.And this informs the way that we see the world.

I am very interested in common materials. I live in a post-industrial society where in the capitalist world we have a lot of surplus goods, which form a type of vocabulary of objects that we are very accustomed to and think we know everything about. And when you encounter a large quantity of generic objects, the experience is very different from a singular encounter with one of them. It’s one of, not so much use, but of the large surplus of goods becoming a decadent extreme, which  I guess can give birth to society. If we have excess food, culture begins to thrive and we end up experimenting in alternative ways of seeing and entertaining. And sculpture is a place where that consumption of alternative representations of the world is given a playground where we can explore new ways of seeing and why we would want to see in new ways. 

So I enjoy exploration of a kind of a playful way of disturbing views that we are accustomed to, either providing too much of something or providing a structure for a quantity of objects, so that we are jarred in our preconceived notions of what the generic item is, whether it is a quantity of office products or whether it’s plastic toys, or some other cultural relic. In surplus they transcend their function and become more about the society that created it. In viewing it, you are given access to sort of background.

I hope that by working with common materials and arranging them in very common ways…I use the grid in my work a lot and I don’t believe any of my sculpture is made in such a way that any one else couldn’t repeat it. That’s very important to me that it would be just as easy to make my work as it would be to purchase it. And I don’t discourage anyone else who can’t afford to buy a piece, to make one. In that way I hope that what’s important is that the ideas and the experiences are put into circulation, rather than any particular individuality I may or may not have being held as important.  Thanks.

Bill Wheelock.  Visual objects.  Vermont and New York, U.S.A.  B.F.A. Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design.  Mr. Wheelock has been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Sculpture Space - Utica, NY, and Anderson Ranch, Colorado. Exhibitions  include Armory Show-NY, Barbara Krakow-Boston, Fogg Museum of Art - Cambridge. Selected collections are Whitney Museum of American Art, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Fogg Museum at Harvard University, and New York Public Library.

Bill Wheelock