Willard Wigan, Sculptor Extraordinaire

If, like us, you thought that British art today was entirely a conceptual affair, all unmade beds and sliced up livestock with no place anymore for physical skill and honed talent, you'll be amazed and delighted at the work of Willard Wigan, a sculptor from Birmingham. His work is like nothing we've ever come across before, and is genuinely breathtaking.

 

Statue of Liberty

 

 

This sculpture of the Statue of Liberty for instance - quite nice, you think...unusual surround to it - what's that? Well, it's a needle. It's actually a sculpture done in the eye of a sewing needle.

This angel on the right; again, a nice delicate finish, but what's that it's mounted on? You might guess if it didn't seem so unlikely, but yes, that's a sculpture on the head of a pin. You look at it, and you look again... but the mind has real trouble accepting the reality. He employs eyelashes, fragments of spider's web, flecks of wood dust - pretty much anything you'd consider too tiny to consider.
Angel

Dinosaur

This dinosaur is another eye-of-the-needle job, even smaller than the statue above. I don't know, but I expect he's done the camel too. He actually sculpts using a sliver of powdered glass glued to the point of a pin, holding his breath for long periods and applying cuts between heartbeats. One of the biggest problems he has is losing a piece to a slight breeze or vibration, or most commonly, static electricity. The only technology he allows himself to use is a microscope, for sculptures which are too small for the naked eye to see.

Below is possibly the most staggering of these four particular pieces, a ship on a grain of sugar. This stuff is a perfect physical illustration of what can be achieved when the power of human concentration is allied to will and hard work. The man's well named!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos: South West News, Art International Management

ship

Further information about Willard Wigan and exhibitions of his work can be found at www.willard-wigan.com