Jaume Plensa, Wilsis in the snow at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Jaume Plensa: Wilsis

Art Outdoors /

Jaume Plensa: Wilsis

Wilsis appears to be deep in thought or dreaming. Her eyes are closed and she is inward-looking and self-contained, remote from the present moment and the beauty of the surrounding scenery. Although monumental in size at over 7 metres high, this sculpture depicts a normal girl, rather than immortalising a traditionally extraordinary or powerful person. Plensa chooses to celebrate the potential in all of us, and the beauty in the everyday. Wilsis belongs to a series of cast iron portrait heads that depict real girls: from many different places around the world, they suggest possibilities for unity across divides. In their youth they represent hopefulness for the future.

A white woman looking up at Jaume Plensa, Wilsis at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

When seen from the front, Wilsis appears to be a realistic rendition of the head, yet from the side it is an extremely flattened relief. Viewing this sculpture at YSP represents a journey of discovery and the work is only revealed fully when you walk around the landscape to discover it more closely.

  • Jaume Plensa, Wilsis seen through the trees at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
  • Jaume Plensa, Wilsis in front of a lake at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
  • Jaume Plensa, Wilsis seen from across a lake at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

You might also like

  1. A metal frame sculpture with a silver ball at the top.
    Art Outdoors

    Lucy + Jorge Orta: Gazing Ball 2018

    Gazing Ball was originally commissioned for The National Trust’s Folly! programme, in which artists create responses to re-imagine lost follies at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, North Yorkshire.
  2. A bronze table structure with white marble pieces wrapped in wire on top.
    Art Outdoors

    Mikayel Ohanjanyan: Diario

    Diario is a physical expression of the many connections that humans make with one another over the course of a lifetime, whether fleeting associations or enduring and intimate bonds. Ohanjanyan draws on a deep interest in our individuality and what we share of ourselves through our relationships with others, inspired by how the journey of our lives is shaped from beginning to end.
  3. A dark grey abstract sculpture next to a lake
    Art Outdoors

    Jørgen Haugen Sørensen: Supplement til Titlens Afskaffelse

    Supplement til Titlens Afskaffelse (Supplement to the Title’s Abolition) embodies Haugen Sørensen’s respect for and relationship with granite. After YSP organised his first solo exhibition in the UK in 1993, the artist developed a great interest in siting sculpture in the open air, enjoying the tough, uncompromising nature of granite, which is one of our hardest and most unyielding stones.
  4. A female figure wearing jeans standing on a white plinth at the edge of a lake, surrounded by foliage
    Art Outdoors

    Lucy + Jorge Orta: Diana

    Woodland Spirit – Diana, formerly known as Ulbelka (a water goddess and the ancient name of the Huveaune, also a word meaning ‘destroyer’, referencing the river’s tempestuous character), was renamed by the artists in 2014 to reflect its current location at YSP.