Evolution of WA
CCA Glasgow
June 2021
Glasgow based artist Willie Sutherland's first solo exhibition with the CCA. This coherent body of work comprises sculpture painting and storytelling. The work is almost entirely constructed from waste cardboard.
Titled Evolution of Wa, the project was developed in its entirety during the lockdown of 2021 in isolation. Some of the works are small in scale, each sculpture’s spontaneous construction belying an unparalleled potency and elegance. As such, Evolution of Wa shows links to Sutherland’s early work in fashion design, and his interest in the human form, albeit on a different scale and practice.
The creation of his dolls house as a self portrait and physical representation of the psyche is unique in its concept and execution. The piece exceeds rational determinations, sensitizing views to perception and the unconscious and engages aspects of painting, drawing, sculpture, construction, and installation, yet remains whimsical, childlike and engaging.
As a body of work, the exhibition reflects a period of enormous change in an individual’s life and Sutherland has embraced the experiential qualities of art and blurred the lines between mediums.
The exhibition inhabits the Clubroom, comprising his Dolls house with windows into a variety of worlds, life size sculpture and large scale illustrations.
