Rooted in sculpture, William Cobbing’s practice encompasses a diverse range of media, including video, performance and installation. Clay is a central material in his work, both in its raw and fired forms, and entropy a key concept. The figures that emerge from his sculptural and performance works often appear to be caught in a temporal state of metamorphosis, blurring the boundary between body and earth. Cobbing's interest in the relationship between clay and communication is apparent in his glazed ceramic book covers, in which tactile surfaces and the pooling of glazes take precedent over the contents, echoing both tablet computers and Bronze Age clay tablets. 

Cobbing's work is held in international collections including NOMAS Foundation, Rome; MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. He has exhibited with the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Hayward Gallery, London; Tate Liverpool; Camden Arts Centre, London; TENT, Rotterdam; Studio Voltaire, London; The Issey Miyake Foundation, Tokyo; Canopy Collections, London.