“Once a sited artwork is made it can look deceptively simple; the best work appears as if it was always there, because it makes sense of a space. But making a piece of public art in collaboration with others is a complicated, uneven, messy, unexpected and protracted process. The final work is only one realisation of all the possibilities that have gone before, the creative knitting together of some selected strands into one concrete form. And then – as importantly – the artwork develops a life of its own in the intersections between the reshaped place, the people who take it over and their engagements with it through time.”
Jos Boys on the Our Space Project
Commissions for Public Spaces
Will Nash has been working on public art commissions since 2006, his practice combines large scale public sculptures and smaller sculptures for homes and gardens.
The public art commissions involve working closely with architects, engineers, developers, councils, companies, institutes and residents to create sculptures that are embedded in the local community. The constraints of the public commissioning process spark his creativity, challenging him to explore a set of parameters to make work that is from the place for the place.
In recent years he has been incorporating habitats for wildlife into his public sculptures. Notable works include the award winning ‘Optohedron’ (2019) a steel and wood seat and habitat sited in the Surrey Hills AONB, ‘Twister’ (2021) a weathering steel structure packed with natural materials prepared for solitary bees to nest in, and ‘Cascade’ (2021) which received the Tunbridge Wells civic society award for public art in 2022.
Nash lives and works in Lewes, East Sussex, UK.
For information about commissioning public and private sculptures contact: will@willnash.co.uk
