William Bock
Land Art Meitheal
23 February to 29 April 2023

William will use his studio residency at Uillinn to focus on his research project, Land Art Meitheal. The project harvests knowledge from Irish folk culture to activate new 'spaces'  in the rural landscape for creativity, ecological learning and social inclusion. The artist's year long research is generously supported by the Arts Council Arts Participation Bursary Award. 

Súgán ropes and creel baskets were examples of  practical tools people here in West Cork created together using materials found at hand in the landscape. This knowledge of working together and with the environment is central to the thinking behind this work. William will host a number of public encounters between farmers, local residents and artists in various outdoor locations in West Cork. They will build on his recent project Tarraingt/ Green Rope created during Skibbereen Arts Festival in 2022 in which the artist invited members of the public to co create a giant súgán rope made from wild plants.

If you would like to find out more, Willaim is inviting the public to join him for a two part experimental hands-on experience of his Land Art Meitheal on 29 April, 11am. ​The event is free of charge booking essential HERE

William Bock's Land Art Meitheal is generously support by the Arts Council /Chomhairle Ealaíon through a Bursary Award

Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks  
William Bock
11 January to 29 February 2020

During his residency at Uillinn William will finalise a body of work for his upcoming solo exhibition at Uillinn in February 2020. Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks is an exhibition in three parts exploring the entangled narratives of migration, ecology and identity in West Cork. The exhibition encompasses visual art works, a public forum of talks/screenings/workshops and a series of sound walks produced by the artist in collaboration with asylum seekers and locals residents which is supported by West Cork Development Partnership, West Cork Arts Centre and Arts Council Ireland.

As Ireland’s climate and cultural landscape changes William investigates how the land can be a common space to share new stories of diversity, belonging and displacement.

Familiar plants in West Cork such as Montbretia, Fuschia and even the potato are migrants themselves from Africa and South America,  living memory of Ireland’s history of emmigration, colonialisation. William is interested in how these entangled relationships between human, plant and animal and their journeys across the globe might challenge notions of what or who is insider/outsider in this landscape.

In the studio William will assemble found / crafted objects, sound recordings and plants collected by the artist during walks and meetings with people around West Cork from the local environment. This material will be installed in a way that maps these experiences as a physical landscape within the gallery space. Visitors are welcome to meet the artist during this time.

More information about William’s residency and exhibition will be available on

facebook   @thislandtalks
Instagram  @bockworks
Twitter       @bockwork

William Bock
Acts of Leaving / Residency #3
4 September to 13 October 2018
Studio open to the public on Wednesdays and Fridays

For his third residency at Uillinn, William Bock will continue with his project exploring the themes of emigration and migration in West Cork. Born in West Cork with a Swedish, German and Polish Jewish migrant heritage, William Bock has experienced living between cultures, countries and identities all his life. Yet it’s the Irish coastal landscape where he grew up, with its own complex heritage of emigration, where he feels most at home.

Thinking of Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre as departure terminal, the artist will use walking as a research tool. Packing his bag and leaving the studio will become a ritualised act, a performed migration out into the landscape and community around Skibbereen. His findings, photographs and ephemera with which he returns to the studio, will inform the final works produced during the residency.

As part of his residency William will open up his practice in a number of ways through hosting a series of free public events; a workshop, a public talk and weekly artist-led walks in locations around West Cork. (check reception or social media for dates and times of walks)

Excess Baggage, Saturday 29 September, 1:30pm. A collaborative performance and photography workshop for artists and individuals who don’t identify as coming from one place or culture. Booking at 028 22090 and info@westcorkartscentre.com

Acts of Leaving, Thursday 11 October, 3.30pm. A talk by artist William Bock sharing the project he has been working on for the past three years. Booking: Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre at 028 22090 and info@westcorkartscentre.com

William is an artist based between West Cork and London whose work explores relationships between memory, identity and belonging. His work is intrinsically process led and takes the form of photography, performance, object making, participatory events and site-specific installations. With a background in performance and theatre making, William’s visual practice is site / subject, responsive and often collaborative.

William is founding member of the DIG Collective, winner of the 2014 ArtQuest Workweek prize and shortlisted for 2016 International Sculpture Competition in Bern, Switzerland (Volkeschule Kleefeld). William has co-produced projects in London and internationally commissioned by Art Safiental Switzerland, PEER Gallery London (Real Estates 2015), Home Live Art, The Barbican and the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. William studied MA Fine Art at City and Guilds School of Art, London. 

If you are interested and wish to know more, go to www.williambock.com

William Bock
Post Potato / Artist Residency #2
Tuesday August 22 to Tuesday September 5 2017

During his second of three artist residencies at Uillinn, William continues his exploration of home, identity and migration in Ireland.

Leaving one’s homeland to follow dreams, to find love, to seek work, to escape hardship or tragedy are each universal stories but also ones at the heart of Irish identity.  Mass emigration due to the great hunger 150 years ago not only changed Ireland, it changed the world. Born and brought up in West Cork by parents with Swedish and German/Polish Jewish heritage, William is connected to the wider story of human migration.  

During the residency William will explore making responses to the act of leaving. He will initiate a series of practical and performed investigative acts inside and outside of the West Cork Arts Centre.

These acts will take influence from stories of the Irish diaspora as well as from the artist’s own family heritage. Some acts may be documented while others may only remain as a memory, Some may involve others, some may be made in isolation. Each act will attempt to get a little closer to that adaptable, egalitarian, controversial but enduring spirit of the migrant.

About the Artist

William Bock is a visual artist working with photography, painting, printmaking, performance and installation. William’s diverse work is driven by his interest in perception, memory, biography, community, embodied experience and identity.  With a background in socially engaged theatre making, his visual practice is often collaborative, process led and site/community responsive. William currently lives and works between London and West Cork. See his website for more information. 

Images: 
Top: William Bock Harvesting Tools 01 Creel.
Lower: Day 3 Leaving Portrait, courtesy of William Bock

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible .