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From Popmart to Cakestands

An evening with Willie Williams
The illustrated story of an artist at play in the world of stadium rock


Williams' work has served as a conduit between the worlds of fine art and the mass culture of live music performance. His ideas have always demonstrated the influence of a vigorous engagement with art.

In 1997, he and U2 met and collaborated with Roy Lichtenstein, Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Howard Finster, as well as the estates of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, to create the extraordinary animated visual material for PopMart.

Williams' own work, executed at a more intimate scale, also acts as a laboratory for research and experiment. Echoes of his handmade and often eccentric creations surface from time to time in his public works – such as a stage comprised of one hundred ropelight sculptures, or a concert lighting system made from recycled East German 'Trabant' cars.

Light has been a primary theme of his practice as an artist. His installation, Vigil for Canterbury Cathedral, sent light pouring 50m down into the nave from the 16th century Bell Harry Tower, and was shown alongside Antony Gormley's Rise as part of the nationwide exhibition Presence in 2004. Williams is also an associate artist of London's Southbank Centre, where he has been responsible for several light-based installations.

About Lumia Domestica he says, "I decided to make something that would play with the idea of 'light shows'. From the earliest 'lumia' experiments of the 1920s to the automated lighting of modern day theatre, the principle is the same – there is a light source, something to make colour and then a piece of glass to focus or diffract the output. Quite how I got from there to cake stands I don't exactly remember, but the notion of taking humble, if not hideous, domestic objects and using them to make the aurora borealis was an opportunity I couldn't resist."