Gallery Hosts Brisbane Artist Elizabeth Willing

Published on 31 January 2024

This month, Wangaratta Art Gallery will be hosting artist Elizabeth Willing who will be spending three weeks in residence in the region to research and develop new work for her solo exhibition at the Gallery in 2025.

Elizabeth Willing’s works are performative and often participatory explorations of food as an art material. Primarily working in sculpture, installation, and performance, her work additionally takes the form of concept dinners and collaborative performances that use the dining table as stage for interactive experiences.

Food has long been a source of fascination as well as a tool of her trade. It’s both material and subject, connecting her work across forms as diverse as wallpaper prints, cookbook collages, edible sculptures, and live dining events. Just as food can provoke a strange mix of responses in us, from disgust to desire, Willing’s creations prompt us to confront the complexity of our relationship with what we consume and why it so often ends up on our minds as well as our plates. Willing is also interested in the sensory qualities of food and its ability to provoke participation. As Elizabeth states:

“I have always held strong views about the ethics of consumption – I was vegetarian for much of my teens and twenties. I also grew up in a household with some complex relationships to food that I was sensitive to. I think I came away with a strong sense that eating was deeply linked to psychology and mental health. It might be that my constant return to food is a way to make sense of all that – but I’ve also discovered a deep love of researching food and dining.”

For her exhibition at Wangaratta Art Gallery, Willing will be investigating the food of our region, and the wine, including the familial and historical connections to agriculture and viticulture. She will be visiting wineries and food producers in the King Valley and using her research to develop a suite of new works that respond directly to the context and uniqueness of our food and wine producing region.

While in the region, the artist will be staying at the Mécène Residency in Beechworth, thanks to the generosity of owners who are keen supporters of the arts.

Rachel Arndt, Wangaratta Art Gallery Director, said of the artist residency:

“We’re delighted to have an artist of Elizabeth’s calibre in residence. Elizabeth will be able to immerse herself in the particularities of Wangaratta and the region, its unique food and wine history and develop new work that captures this essence.

As an artist that works across food, sculpture, installation and textiles, there are so many synergies and I’m confident that her work will resonate with local audiences and visitors alike.” She said.

Elizabeth Willing’s exhibition will be presented at Wangaratta Art Gallery from 1 February - 30 March 2025.