Rachel Beckles Willson

My work tends to start in difficult places where I feel out of my depth, where something is obscured or unresolved. I stay with that discomfort - not to resolve it, but to see what might reveal itself if I listen long enough. Sometimes it’s a tiny ecosystem under a leaf that could become sound. Sometimes it’s a troubling story that flips into something absurd or tender through animation. Sometimes grief quietly reshapes itself into music. I follow these shifts as they come.

This way of working carries me through a wide landscape of practices: classical performance, audiovisual work, sound-art experiments, interactive installations, modal composition, oud playing, research and workshops. What connects them is not the medium but the stance. I deliberately step into situations where I’m not the expert, where I’m an outsider, awkward, or unsure. In that state, the unfamiliar becomes a partner. It pushes back, enlarges my perspective, and opens questions I could not have reached alone.

That is ultimately the thread running through my work. By navigating these unstable, in-between spaces, I aim to create openings – small ruptures in the familiar – where overlooked experiences and alternative stories can surface. My practice lies in cultivating these shifts through sound, image, or collective process, and in inviting others to step into that altered space with me.