Caroline Williams

Caroline Williams is an artist working in multi-disciplinary participatory performance. Her work focuses on current political issues, for example the semantics of screens in relation to the war in Syria, migration or the relationship between loneliness and technology. Using personal narratives, she works to find a performative language that will most powerfully communicate the heart of these stories. At the core of her work is a passion to give people who wouldn’t primarily consider themselves artists a platform to create great works of art. She seeks stories that matter and people who have something important to say.

‘As a freelance independent artist often working with different collaborators it can be relatively isolating at times. My studio at Somerset House Studios sharing with Deborah Pearson has allowed me to put down roots in a building filled with artists who are doing exciting work. From sculptors to film makers I’ve been able to make friendships with people from very different disciplines to mine. You are hot-wired into a collective creative brain that will always give you inspiration if you need it.

Since my residency I’ve formed my own artist collective with fellow studio resident Deborah Pearson. International Activities Club is a performance collective dedicated to facilitating dialogue and real encounters in a divisive world. We toured our first show “Make Yourself At Home”, performed by first generation immigrants, to Nuit Blanche Brussels and are currently planning a further tour of this piece as well as my installation made with Syrian film-maker Reem Karssli, “Now Is The Time To Say Nothing”.

At the start of the year I received a professional development grant from Arts Council England to concentrate on my participatory practice and provide the resources to create two new bodies of work, “Who We Meet and The Police Project”. This grant and the support of Somerset House will be vital in allowing me the creative and practical tools to make the best work I can.

Above all I feel Somerset House has supported me in having confidence to define my practice as well as my interests. It has helped me be bold to make the work I want to make and believe that this work can be formally inventive and have an international audience.’

– Caroline Williams