Jonathan Willett

Jonathan Willett’s project Freeze, related to an ongoing series of of drawings the artist described as ‘emotion diagrams’. In September 2006, Willett produced an ice sculpture in the form of an arrow from one of the diagrams, as the basis for navigating connections between movement and experience.

The ice sculpture was floated into the river near Trent Bridge and eventually melted away into the current, a reminder that the modern, frenetic way of life is sustained by the cyclical time of nature. This work was a pointer to a possible place in the future, where there may be little option but to slow down a little, in order to overcome the environmental problems which are caused, the artist believes, by an excess of activity. Freeze was intended to remind the audience that the idea of doing less is not only a possibility but perhaps a necessity if we are to create a sustainable way of life.

The process of the arrow melting away was documented as it happened in photographs and a short film by Victor Simao. Eventually it was cast adrift as a ‘passing thought’ and filmed as it went under the bridge and floats away into the distance.


Dr Jonathan Willett explores how philosophies of creativity can be applied to emergent forms of artistic practice, whose productive strategies challenge the conventional approach to public art commissions and gallery based exhibition.

His essay will be featured in the second volume of the Hinterland Publication in September 2009.