For the River Residencies curated by Ormston House, Clare Arts Office will host William Bock along the north shore of the Shannon Estuary, a Special Area of Conservation and home to various protected species of avian and aquatic life.

William Bock is an interdisciplinary artist working in Ireland and the UK exploring the connections between people and the environments they inhabit. He uses photography, painting, sound recording, performance and installation to delve into the experiences of living between cultures, landscapes and identities in the context of a changing climate. Collaboration and responsive approaches to working with materials, particular sites and with communities are central to his process as an artist.

William’s work encompasses the production and curation of public events, workshops, exhibitions and residencies. He is member of the Wilderness Art Collective and a founding member of award-winning artist group Dig Collective producing projects commissioned by Safiental Biennale for Land and Environment Art (2018) in Switzerland and PEER Gallery for Real Estates (2015) in the UK. He was co-director of Strangeworks (2006–2012) theatre collective, producing projects for the Barbican and New Walsall Art Gallery in the UK, and at Leewardan Pop Academy in the Netherlands.

In 2020, William won the inaugural Sustainability First 2020 Art Prize. His work has recently been published by the Dark Mountain Project, Create Ireland News, and has been featured in The Irish Times, RTÉ Television, Lettre International and London Review of Books. He holds a BA in Performance Design and Practice from Central Saint Martins, and a MA Fine Art from the City & Guilds London Art School.

The River Residencies are co-funded by the Arts Council’s An Invitation to Collaboration scheme, led by Limerick Culture & Arts Office in partnership with the Arts Offices in Cavan, Clare and Tipperary. The River Residencies are part of the Museum of Mythological Water Beasts (2017-), a multi-year project about, along and on the River Shannon curated by Ormston House.

Image: A hole in the alps, Dig Collective, 2018. Photograph by Alberto Duman, courtesy of the artist.