Willard Wigan | |
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.jpg) Wigan in 2019 | |
| Born | June 1957 (age 67–68) Ashmore Park Estate,Wednesfield, England |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Movement | Micro miniature |
| Awards | MBE |
Willard Wigan,MBE (born June 1957) is aBritishsculptor from Ashmore Park Estate,Wednesfield, England, the son ofJamaican immigrants, who makesmicro miniature sculptures. His sculptures are typically placed in the eye of a needle or on the head of a pin. A single sculpture can be as small as 0.005 mm (0.0002 in).[1]
As a child withdyslexia andASD,[2] neither of which were diagnosed until adulthood,[3] Willard Wigan was ridiculed in class by hisprimary school teachers for not learning to read.[4][5] Wigan attributes his early drive in sculpting, which began at the age of five, to his need to escape from the derision of teachers and classmates.[4] He wanted to show the world that nothing did not exist, deducing that if people were unable to view his work, then they would not be in any position to criticise it. Wigan has since aimed to make even smaller artworks, visible only with amicroscope.
In July 2007 he was made anMBE.[6]
On 3 February 2016 Wigan was a guest on BBC Radio 4'sMidweek programme.[7]
On 5 September 2017 Wigan's was recognized byGuinness World Records as having created the smallest handmade sculpture in the world; it measured 0.078 by 0.053 millimetres and depicted a humanfoetus.[8] This record beat his prior record set in 2013 when he made a 24-carat gold motorbike embedded into a human hair.[9]
In January 2018, Willard Wigan received an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Warwick in recognition of the significant contributions that he has made to art and sculpture.
In 2004, Wigan exhibited at The Artlounge gallery inBirmingham. The BBC'sInside Out - South West noted that the works displayed included "scenes of Jesus Christ and The Last Supper, with each individual figure no bigger than an eyelash or a human hair. At less than a hundredth of an inch tall, it's painstakingly precise work".[10]
In 2009, Wigan appeared as a guest speaker at theTED Conference inOxford, UK.[11] and later that year also as a guest onThe Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien[12] in the US.
After a series of exhibitions in the UK, during 2009 and 2010 Wigan toured the US.[13]
On 6 November 2012, election night in America, he was a guest on the television show Conan on TBS.
Wigan marked theDiamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II by sculpting the Queen's portrait on a coffee bean; he described creating the work as "a bit of a challenge because a coffee bean crumbles and is hollow in the middle".[14]
TheLibrary of Birmingham exhibited his works in January 2015.[15] In 2010, the BBC reported that Wigan had sculpted a model of St Bartholomew's church inChosen Hill, Gloucestershire, on a grain of sand that he had taken from its churchyard. He had done so in response to a challenge from his girlfriend, who described the result as "absolutely fantastic". The vicar of the church said the sculpture was beautiful, but Wigan expressed his own dissatisfaction with the work, saying "As small as what you've seen, it's not the best of me yet, I'm taking it even smaller because I'm not satisfied with my work right now, it's too big."[16]
In 2022, Willard was a judge on the showThe Great Big Tiny Design Challenge, in which competitors created miniature furniture.[17]
I had Asperger's, which wasn't diagnosed until later in life, but I knew I was different.
[Wigan's] autism and severe dyslexia would not be diagnosed until he was an adult.
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