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Hello ︎︎︎



Lu Williams (b.1993, Essex) is an artist producing sculpture, print, zines, drawing, writing, video, events and workshops through research, community engagement, collecting and collaboration.

They make work around the themes of place and memory; community and collaboration; collecting; class and upbringing; accessibility; and platforming and uplifting marginalised voices- through the lens of queerness, neurodivergence and working classness.
They are interested in class and taste, queerness, ecology, systems, paraphernalia and the notion of the ‘disposable’; elevating everyday offcuts, often ephemeral and nostalgic, into the valued but functional ‘art object’.

In 2015 they created Grrrl Zine Fair, a place for self-publishing and DIY art, music and culture surrounding feminist publishing. In 2017 the Grrrl Zine Library was born and hosted 600+ queer feminist zines, housed at The Old Waterworks.

In 2020 they co-founded Dog Ear, dog toy sculptures and accompanying publications produced by artists, with artist Emma Edmondson.

They continue research on ‘The Cyberabject’, an investigation into ‘ the upheaval of contemporary media toward the entropic and bodily aesthetic. Cyberabject explores “the embodiment in a world of inconsistent human built data, the desire for In Real Life (IRL) bodies through screens, uncanny animatronics, and seeping pores of human skin pawing, at the cloud.” You can read the original Cyberabject Essay here.

Williams is currently based in Leigh-on-sea, working from The Old Waterworks artist studios, Southend-on-sea and is on the Southend Community Investment Board and will be joining the Creative Estuary Board in September 2023. 

︎ studio@luwilliams.com
︎ Grrrl enquiries + zine workshops: hello@grrrlzinefair.com
︎ www.grrrlzinefair.com
︎ www.dogear.uk

Instagram

CV


work


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Photo by Eliza Hatch

︎ 3D



Untitled, custom printed hand drawn temporary tattoos and beach towel. Tissue with wax, insultation, print mounted on cardboard with baking foil, wood painted and covered with pink faux fur, customised guitar stand, 2016. Untitled, latex cast with temporary tattoos, metal clip mesh and aluminium pipe, 2016. Soft Verges, 2018 Pseudocreme detail, 2016. Pseudocreme, 2016. Pipe Dreams, aluminium pipe, shop fittings, bucket, foil fringe curtain, rope, faux fur seatbelt cover, perfume bottles, rubber tubing, latex, coloured water, wood dipped in wax and plaster, netting, plastic filled with sand and melted wax, 2016. Slow Press Admin Recycling Centre detail, 2020. Whims of Her Own, custom retractable safety barrier, 2019. Magnet Paintings, detail 'Mudflats Not More Flats' 2021, Click image for full installation shots. Visitors Centre, 2021 Just The Scraps WIP Exhibition and Open Studio, Click for full exhibition documentation, 2023. Unsolicited, handmade paper from shredded spam mail and letterbox draught excluder 2020-2023




︎ 2D


Grrrl In Print, Issue 2, 2018. Annotate to oblivion, published in 'In Other Words', Metal Culture 2021. Grrrl In Print, Issue 3, 2019. Grrrl In Print, Issue 4, 2020. The Other MA degree show 'Tend To It' exhibition poster and catalogue 2021. The Room, FEM Press x UGG, design 2022. Archiving Joy, click to purchase, 2022. Never Have I Ever Land, print on silk, 2020. Leftist Agenda, 2022. Social Justice Warrior, 2022. Snowflake, 2022.
Foldable zine and poster for Tate Late Zine Workshop, Waves, 2019. Grrrl In Print, Issue 1, 2017. Fucking Didactic, colouring in poster for Polyester Zine workshop at Tate Late 2017. Hide In Plain Sight, colouring in poster for Polyester Zine workshop at Tate Late 2017. Cyberabject Manifesto, short form of initial dissertation for Polyester Zine 2017.





︎ Commissions 

Queer History of Southend banner for Southend's Twilight Worlds, 16 July – 8 October 2022 At TOMA Project Space. This work is accompanied by a worksheet poster and zine workshops and will be donated to Southend Pride. This Must Be The Place, Ebbsfleet Garden City Workshops for Cement Feilds with North Kent College, 2022. Photo: Samuel Taylor Basildon Tenants Handbook, design, research and public programme 2019 Teenage Girls Are Out Future, Phytology Bethnal Green 2018 LGBTQIA+ artist mural for Woodlands High School, Basildon with Emma Edmondson, working for 16 weeks 2018-2019. Manifesto for Essex, 2019-2020, Handmade publication and 1,000 duplicates, compilled from a years enviromentally focused zine workshops with young people for Essex Book Festival. Public sculpture for Southend High Street, 2022- on going, A period of public consultation and workshops followed by the production of the work later in the year. Click for further info. Lead artist for MK's Fuelled By Youth Public Artwork Commission, 2022- ongoing, a series of workshops and discussions leading to a public outcome late 2022.







EDUCATION


Central Saint Martins, UAL, London | Foundation | 2012 - 2013
The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University | BFA | 2013 - 2016
The Other MA* (TOMA*), Southend | Alt MA | 2020-2022

Selected Artworks + Exhibitions + Awards + Commissions


Basildon Cultural Trails Commission, Looking at repairing and caring for historic public artworks though live events, workshops and a publication as Care Contractors collective featuring Emma Edmondson, Shaun C. Badham and Laura Whiting August 2024 - November 2024.

Ebbsfleet Citizens Archive, Public Commission, Cement Feilds + Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, 2023-2024.

High Street Commission
Creative Estuary and Focal Point Gallery awarded commission to create a large-scale public artwork summer 2022.


Never Have I Ever
Print exhibited as part of Precarious Straights, The Other MA Project Space, June 2021

Vanishing Point
Lu Williams and Mary Mattingly, Published by Focal Point Gallery, May 2021

Artquest Adaptions Award, March 2021

Listen, Learn, Change, Rebuild
TOMA Takeover at Focal Point Gallery, July 2020.

Soft Press
The Agency Of Visible Women, Beecroft Gallery.
2019-2020

Whims of their own
Representing Realness, Group Show, No Format Gallery curated by Liv Taylor, July 2019.

Grrrl Zine Library
Art Book Fair in China, Exhibitor and featured artist, Times Art Museum, Beijing, June 2019.

Grrrl Zine Library
Still I Rise: Nottingham Contemporary, 2019

Grrrl Zine Library
The Other Art Fair, 2018

Grrrl Zine Library
Grrrls On Film, screening 15 emerging artists films, A Woman With A Movie Camera Summit, British Film Institute, June 2018 and 2019.

Teenage Girls are Our Future
Billboard design for Phytology Bill Posters, Bethnal Green, May 2018

Soft Verges
The Agency Of Visible Women, Beecroft Gallery, February 2017

Untitled
'100% Southend', Twenty One, curated by Focal Point Gallery, July 2017.

Selected Publications and features.



Creatives Lives In Progress, Artist and Grrrl Zine Fair founder Lu Williams on the power of simply asking for wor. June 2023.

Notion Magazine, Dreaming Keeps Us Hopeful, March 2023.

Archiving Joy, The story of Rosemary Joy Erskine b.1924 my Great Aunt who lived as an openly queer transgender women. The book pulls together fragments of her life through oral history, photos, video and the archive, alongside contributions from writers and artists reflecting and reimagining current archival practices in the UK. Published by Grrrl Zine Fair, 27th March 2022.

Vanishing Point
Collaboration with Mary Mattingly, Published by Focal Point Gallery, Edition number 104, May 2021.
Design.

Radical Possibilities
Art & Queer Identity published by Common Thread Press, March 2021
Contributing writer.

It's Only Me In The Playground
A zine, pin badge, and scratchcard design for Sad Night Dynamite, Parlophone Records, February 2021.

People Like Us
Published by Holly Revell for SHOUT Festival, November 2020.
Design.

In Other Words
Published by Metal Culture, October 2020.
Featured Artist.

If I Was Your Boyfriend
published by FEM Press featuring artists Caitlin King, Kai Isaiah Jamal, Rene Matic, Harve and Otamere Guobadia, September 2020. Design.

The Manifesto For Essex
published by Lu Williams for Essex Book Festival, Essex 2020, September 2020.
Handmade paper zine, digital scan and 500 duplicates.
Workshops, Content generation, Design, Printing.

Grrrl In Print Issue 4
published by Grrrl Zine Fair, September 2020.
Concept, Editing, Design, Publishing.

BOREDOM-19 ZINE
published by Chelmsford Creatives 14-24yr olds + Chelmsford Council, September 2020.
Workshop content generation, Design.

To Dream Effectively Activity Pack
Activity Pack for Focal Point Gallery, October 2020.
Design and workshop concepts.

In My Room: Art Activity Pack
Activity Pack for Focal Point Gallery, June 2020.
Design and workshop concepts.

Southchurch Hall
Priory Times
Activity Packs for Southend Museums, June 2020
Concept and Design.

The Tenants Handbook
A zine exploring art and activism in Basildon, published by Lu Williams and The Old Waterworks Press, November 2019.
Workshops, Concept, Editing, Writing, Commissions and Design.

Fanzine Grrrls
The DIY Revolution In Female Self-Publishing
by Gemma Villegas.
published by Monsa Publications.
Featured Artist.

Fanpages
published by IDEA, 2017
created by Bay Garnett and Kira Jolliffe.
Contributing Artist.


Selected Curation


Estuary Festival 2021 Opening Weekend.
Online talks, performances, walks, live and recorded in sync with low and high tide times plus biodegradable and online artist sticker commissions, May - June 2021.
Curator.

Grrrl Zine Fair Online Fair
Virtual marketplace, workshops, DJ sets and performances funded by Arts Council England, May 2020.
Curation and Production.

Grrrl Zine Fair stage
Village Green Festival, July 2019.
Curation, production, design and marketing.

Spread
Village Green July 2019, Arcade Campfa, Cardiff, November 2019.
Exhibition curation and programming.

International Women’s Day Southend 2019
Twenty One, Southend-on-sea, March 2019.
Curation and Production.

Grrrl Zine Fair Space
Talks, Workshops, Grrrl Zine Library exhibition.
London Illustration Fair, 2018
Curator and Production.

Selected Talks + Workshops


Zine workshops as part of Ebbsfleet Garden City youth participation project, Cement Fields, March-May 2022. 

Visiting Tutor + Workshop, Central Saint Martins, Performance and Protest Course, May 2022.

Visiting Tutor and workshop, Chelsea College of Arts, Feb 2022.

Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art South Essex College, Jan-May 2022.

Zines As A Tool For Activism, Host,
Estuary Festival, May 2021.

Alt Art Education Conference, Speaker, Conway Hall, July 2020.

Zine Workshop, Facebook Analogue Lab, June 2020.

Radical Histories of Basildon Talk, Radical Essex, Beecroft Gallery, October 2019.

Guest artist at International Literature Festival Dublin, 23rd-24th May 2019.

Education Workshops as part of Chisenhale Galleries Mandy El Sayegh Exhibition 2019

Educator at The Other MA, TOMA shop space with Essex University February-March, 2019

Mural project, developing a 6m mural with students at Woodlands High School for Make Happen, Basildon, 2019.

Workshops and talk for teenage girls as part of Natwest Women’s Prize For Fiction, Summer 2019.

Zine Workshop and Feminist Library Installation, A Vote for Whom? Victoria and Albert Museum Friday Late, March 2018