Willard Wigan, MBE (born 1957) is a sculptor from Birmingham, England, who makes microscopic art. His sculptures are created in the eye of a needle or placed on the head of a pin. A single sculpture can be as small as 0.005 mm (0.0002 in). [1] In July 2007 Willard Wigan was honoured by HRH the Prince of Wales with an MBE for his services to art.[2]
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As a child with undiagnosed dyslexia, Willard Wigan was ridiculed in class by his primary school teachers for not learning to read.[3] Wigan attributes his early drive in sculpting, begun at the age of five years, to his need to escape from being ridiculed by teachers and classmates.[3] Wigan has since been on a quest to make even smaller artworks visible only through a microscope.
The subjects of Wigan's works range from popular culture to architecture. The sculptor often refers in his work to other artists and historical events. Amongst his most famous pieces are a minute reproduction of Michelangelo's David, carved out of a single grain of sand and a commissioned miniature version of the Lloyd's building in London. Wigan has recently created a miniature sculpture representing the Obama family and has carved a statue of astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the eye of a needle, in celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the 1969 lunar landing. Other works include a microscopic Betty Boop and a copy of the FIFA World Cup trophy, both about 0.005 mm (0.0002 in) tall.
On average it takes Wigan about eight weeks to complete one sculpture in a process that is physically challenging. Because the works are so minute, the sculptor has learned to control his nervous system and breathing to ensure he does not make even the tiniest movement. Wigan, when working, enters a meditative state in which his heartbeat is slowed, allowing him to reduce any hand tremors and work between heartbeats.
To carve his figures, Wigan uses Swann-Morton surgical blades or hand-made tools, (some of which are custom made out of a sharpened microscopic sliver of Tungsten), which he makes by attaching a shard of diamond to a pin. The sculptures themselves are made of a wide range of materials. Wigan uses for instance nylon, grains of sand, dust fibres, gold and spider's cobwebs, depending on the demands of the piece he is working on. To paint his creations, Wigan often uses a hair from a dead housefly, although he does not kill flies for his artistic processes.
In 2009 Wigan appeared as a guest speaker at the TED Conference in Oxford, UK.[4] and later that year also as a guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.[5] After a series of exhibitions in the UK, during 2009-10 Wigan went on tour in the USA.[6]