The found object has an enduring fascination for many artists, but few have such an affectionate, observant obsession as Joby Williamson. Used plastic buckets, broom handles, crushed cardboard boxes, fragile and abandoned tables, screwed up and thrown away post-it notes: these prosaic things, the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life, are the source for Williamson’s artworks and installations. His practice pivots around “the inverted memory we apply to objects” and acts as an archaeological study of today’s artefacts.
Williamson takes this exploration in two directions. Firstly, artworks that stem from discarded objects but that find a new form, often pushing technical boundaries in the process. Then there are the works in which the collection itself is the artwork. Joby Williamson has been collecting discarded Post-It Notes for ten years. This ongoing series reveals an anthology of small details about people’s personal and working lives, from the banal to the beatific. His photographic series, sketchbook, forms an archive of snatched images of pointed observation.
Joby Williamson curated the Irregular Wasps show at TINTYPE with fellow artist Peter Lamb. He is a Print Tutor at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University; and Print Assistant at the Royal College of Art. His work has been shown in London, New York, Los Angeles, Seoul, Tokyo and Reykjavík.
Download CV
