Stephen Willats (born 1943 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) is a British

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

. He lives and works in

. Stephen Willats is a pioneer of

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

. Since the early 1960s he has created work concerned with extending the territory in which art functions. His work has involved interdisciplinary processes and theory from

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

systems analysis Systems analysis is "the process of studying a procedure or business to identify its goal and purposes and create systems and procedures that will efficiently achieve them". Another view sees system analysis as a problem-solving technique that b ...

cybernetics Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Works

His

multi-media Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

projects often engage visitors to participate in creative social processes. Notable projects include ''Multiple Clothing'' (1965–1998), ''The West London Social Resource Project'' (1972), and the book ''Art and Social Function: Three Projects'' (1976). Willats considers ''Art and Social Function'' as a "kind of manual or tool that would be relevant to any artist thinking of enacting different paradigms for an art intervening in the fabric of society". His 1973 work ''Meta Filter'' consisted of pairs of participants seated at a computer, attempting to reach an agreement about the meanings of various images and statements. Stephen Willats ran the ''Centre for Behavioural Art'', a cross-disciplinary research and discussion platform he established at Gallery House, London, in 1972–73. ''The Artist as an Instigator of Changes in Social Cognition and Behaviour'' is a publication originally published in 1973 and re-issued in 2010 by Occasional Papers. The essay includes rigorous analyses of social forms of artistic production and descriptions of a number of projects by Willats. He has produced a number of extended projects working with residents of public housing estates across Europe. Examples include ''Pat Purdy and the Glue Sniffers' Club'' (1981-2), ''The Kids are in the Street'' (1981-2) and ''Are You Good Enough for the Cha Cha Cha?'' (1982), about, respectively, wasteland outside the Avondale estate in West London, a skateboard park near a

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

housing estate, and a London punk music club. For ''Brentford Towers'' (1985) Willats worked with residents to map the interiors of their homes, identifying objects holding personal significance. His works are held in the collections of the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, the National Portrait Gallery, and the

Henry Moore Institute Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk
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References

External links

Tate Modern: Talks & Discussions: MULTIPLE CLOTHING: Message, Interaction, Exchange: Stephen WillatsStephen Willats biography at Victoria Miro Gallery
* ttp://www.frieze.com/issue/review/stephen_willats/ Stephen Willats at Galerie Nagel, Cologne, Germany, Frieze, Issue 98, April 2006br>'Control' Publication edited by Stephen Willats since 1965
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willats, Stephen 1943 births Living people British conceptual artists English contemporary artists