Laura Ellen Bacon

Willow sculptor

©Tony West

©Alun Callender

Weaving willow in unexpected places

Laura creates site-specific installations in woven willow
Her work inspired a new symphony by Helen Grime
She has also worked in stone and Corten steel

Happily for sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon, she enjoys working in the wind and rain. Her ‘workshop’ is the great outdoors, where she creates complex site-specific works in woven Somerset willow that climb up the side of buildings, arch over garden paths or disappear into streams. “Most of my work tends to be large, often big enough to walk inside, which stems from a thrill of natural, handmade spaces,” she explains. Over the last 20 years, she has built up an enthusiastic fan base for her work. Her proudest moment was sitting in the sold-out premiere for Helen Grime’s symphony, Woven Space, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London, since Helen was inspired to write it after discovering Laura's installation of the same name at the Duke of Devonshire's Chatsworth House. Laura is represented by Hignell Gallery in Mayfair, London, all sales and commission enquiries can be made through the gallery.

Interview

©Matthew Ling

©Sebastian King

Why did you choose to work with willow?: I think it chose me. As soon as I felt I had a personal link with the material and my own ways to use it, it felt like an unstoppable energy. I began by making shapes I could climb into – like huge nests – and then gravitated towards immersive works for outdoor spaces.
Is what you do connected to basketry?: Only by virtue of the skill of twisting and manipulating strands of willow. Beyond this basic technique, my work has stepped outside the usual limits of the genre to create very complex, site-specific works. The hand-knotting is my own signature.
How do you express innovation?: By using this very traditional craft material in unexpected places, such as working with architects and designers to bring it into a built environment. For the headquarters of a company in Aarhus, Denmark, I created a woven space reflecting the ocean that can be viewed through the windows.
Is your craft in danger?: Wherever the natural world is under threat, then materials such as willow are under threat too. One of my most recent works, Don’t Let Go, at Warwick University, is intended to highlight the decline of insect life, a vital component in terrestrial ecosystems.

Laura Ellen Bacon is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2001