Bilhenry Walker

My sculptural output over the last fifty-five years has included three-dimensional paintings, wall-sculpture, clear acrylic sculptures, mass-cast poly-resin sculptures up to 11 feet tall, monumental sculptures up to 20 feet tall, neon sculpture, organic based sculpture, LED integrated sculptures powered by solar panels and suspended sculptures.
My early outdoor sculptures of the last thirty years are, essentially, three-dimensional line drawings in space that create a sculptural calligraphy to which a viewer may relate as either drawing or sculpture. The visual interplay between the second and third dimensions has been a primary and ongoing interest in my sculpture exploration over the last 55 years. My monumental sculptures have been exhibited and installed in national and international venues since 1992 as noted in my resume.
Over the last fifteen years I have been working on a series of sculptures that represent a return to figuration, As a result I have also developed a series of biologically inspired pieces based on the shapes of organisms found in the “Petrie dish” By enlarging these shapes to table-top and human-scale, the negative associations are removed and the complex structures and combinations of shapes can be seen without the need of a microscope.
This organic series of sculptures has now been built up to ten feet tall and plans made to increase their height to 30 feet. LED lighting has been added to infuse the interiors with a glow of cobalt blue to indicate the presence of “life-force” within its metal skin. The light emanating from within creates a surreal look at night creating disembodied forms hovering in the darkness, disconnected from the memory of its daytime shape. This brings me full-circle to viewing these sculptures as three dimensional by day and as two- dimensional drawings by night.
These new organic non-representational sculptures I call “Neo-futurist” in that they exhibit motion, torque and hi-tech features such as LED lighting to get a more visceral response from the viewers. Each of these new sculptures is meant to engage the viewers throughout the day and night and the look of the sculpture will dramatically change from light to dark. Several of these new models have been photo-shopped into venues which illustrate the way I would use light in full-scale sculptures.
In 2013 I began a series of Social Justice sculptures which addressed the tragedies of gun-violence in his Milwaukee neighborhood and has continued this figurative approach to the present. I have continued creating human-scale abstract figurations and have just completed a series of three which are somewhat autobiographical and speak to the stages of spiritual development. These pieces are also kinetic.