CATHERINE WILLIS

Catherine Willis is a French multidisciplinary artist, dividing her time between Paris and Normandy. As a sculptor, painter, and botanist, she is renowned for her olfactory installations. Works include ‘Perfume Rings’ and ‘Botanical Vehicles’, as well as sculptures that incorporate homemade perfumes derived from vetiver, cassia cinnamon, and plant-dyed silks and gauzes bound by cotton ligatures. For works on paper, Willis favours labdanum, wild vetiver and aromas of aged wines.

Willis’ art is informed by extensive travels, spanning Mali’s Dogon ancestral territory, China’s Yunnan province, Yazd County in Iran, and throughout Europe and the USA. The philosophy of her practice is to invite the viewer into meditation, and to cultivate a deeper connection to the natural world by engaging the senses as quiet observation.

“From cosmic events to scented plants, I celebrate colour and perfume of the origins, the tension & lines of evolution, the patterns that connect.” - Catherine Willis