Margot F Wilson
artist writer poet
I read philosophy at Birkbeck and Glasgow and writing at Sheffield and The Royal College of Art. As a philosopher I am particularly interested in meditations on death, rituals as catharsis, the art and science of levitation, and motorcycle road trips. As a writer, my style is playful, pithy, lively and aphoristic. I write performative prose and creative non-fiction and also have a novel titled 'Not Yet Soon' in its second draft. The second novel is titled 'The Drunken Bodhisattva'.
Amongst my projects at The Royal College of Art is a collaboration with Oxford University's Pitt Rivers Museum, a short film created as part of a week long workshop titled 'Another World is Possible' led by Peter Kennard and Gayle Chong Kwan, and a protest performance piece titled 'Ode to Number 6'. My final assignment is titled 'To a Funeral 45 Years Late'.
To a Funeral 45 Years Late is mediated by a road trip with three destinations: the first is Wakefield to visit Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture ‘The Family of Man (1970), the second is Lockerbie, to the Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, the third is to Larkhall (Scotland), to the grave of my brother who died at the age of 17 in a fatal motorcycle accident. I was 11, sent away, did not attend the funeral and when I returned it was as though he never existed. The year was 1975, the same year Hepworth died and Pirsig’s ‘Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ was published in the UK. My brother was never spoken of again and motorcycles remained a family and personal taboo - until I took my motorcycle test in 2013. Both Hepworth and Pirsig lost sons in tragic incidents.
Born out of loss I am interested the generative urge towards imaginary belonging. Born out of separation I am interested in the generative urge towards imaginary relations. Born out of universal interior aloneness I am interested in the generative urge towards companionship with material objects. Might this all be the handy work of Death? Death in the West is predominantly viewed as decay, destruction, as a force of chaos, with Being as distinctly separate - but might it be the reverse? Might every act of labelling and categorisation be a slaying and an execution: an Act of Death? These are themes at play in Tibetan Buddhism (esp. Bardo), non-atomistic philosophies, and Hellenistic astrology, which remain my pillion passengers and beloved travel companions.
Carried inside my pocket will be the Death Chart of my brother’s death. An astrological Death Chart expresses the moment of death as a complex, timeless, interrelated, interdependent happening, such that dying, death and dead is inseparable from what we call Life. As such, there is no linear causation. This project aspires to be a portrayal of Death as an existential response to ‘being in the presence of ‘absence’.
Amongst my projects at The Royal College of Art is a collaboration with Oxford University's Pitt Rivers Museum, a short film created as part of a week long workshop titled 'Another World is Possible' led by Peter Kennard and Gayle Chong Kwan, and a protest performance piece titled 'Ode to Number 6'. My final assignment is titled 'To a Funeral 45 Years Late'.
To a Funeral 45 Years Late is mediated by a road trip with three destinations: the first is Wakefield to visit Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture ‘The Family of Man (1970), the second is Lockerbie, to the Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, the third is to Larkhall (Scotland), to the grave of my brother who died at the age of 17 in a fatal motorcycle accident. I was 11, sent away, did not attend the funeral and when I returned it was as though he never existed. The year was 1975, the same year Hepworth died and Pirsig’s ‘Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ was published in the UK. My brother was never spoken of again and motorcycles remained a family and personal taboo - until I took my motorcycle test in 2013. Both Hepworth and Pirsig lost sons in tragic incidents.
Born out of loss I am interested the generative urge towards imaginary belonging. Born out of separation I am interested in the generative urge towards imaginary relations. Born out of universal interior aloneness I am interested in the generative urge towards companionship with material objects. Might this all be the handy work of Death? Death in the West is predominantly viewed as decay, destruction, as a force of chaos, with Being as distinctly separate - but might it be the reverse? Might every act of labelling and categorisation be a slaying and an execution: an Act of Death? These are themes at play in Tibetan Buddhism (esp. Bardo), non-atomistic philosophies, and Hellenistic astrology, which remain my pillion passengers and beloved travel companions.
Carried inside my pocket will be the Death Chart of my brother’s death. An astrological Death Chart expresses the moment of death as a complex, timeless, interrelated, interdependent happening, such that dying, death and dead is inseparable from what we call Life. As such, there is no linear causation. This project aspires to be a portrayal of Death as an existential response to ‘being in the presence of ‘absence’.
I am obsessed with levitation and vicious circularity.
— Margot Wilson - RCA Alumni 2022
Education
Philosophy
BA Philosophy (Hons) Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, 2010 - 2013
MPhil (R) Philosophy, University of Glasgow, UK, 2013 – 2016
Writing
MA Creative Writing (Distinction), University of Sheffield, UK, 2017 – 2018
MA Writing, Royal College of Art, London, UK, 2020 - 2022
Art
Graduate Diploma in Art & Design (A* Distinction), Royal College of Art, London, UK, 2022 - 2023
MA Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art, London UK, 2023 - 2024
— Margot Wilson - RCA Alumni 2022
Education
Philosophy
BA Philosophy (Hons) Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, 2010 - 2013
MPhil (R) Philosophy, University of Glasgow, UK, 2013 – 2016
Writing
MA Creative Writing (Distinction), University of Sheffield, UK, 2017 – 2018
MA Writing, Royal College of Art, London, UK, 2020 - 2022
Art
Graduate Diploma in Art & Design (A* Distinction), Royal College of Art, London, UK, 2022 - 2023
MA Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art, London UK, 2023 - 2024