yvonne pethullis
from nothing, something
Nothing to See Here 2025
Moulded pulp fibre packaging
This structure is monumental it creates a disruption in the space as it blocks and compromises the view as it rises up to the ceiling. It is designed for the place it is in and in Phyllida Barlow's words 'abuses' the space as it dominates the room, grounded in its heaviness and solidity.
This sculpture questions our perception of the ordinary and our relationship to the familiar. It highlights and puts into discussion our environmental impact through everyday behaviour and challenges the ensuing narrative. It is solid but ephemeral, an opportunity to see the beauty in the overlooked and discarded.
Threshold of Invisibility 2025
Canvas from the back of old Ordnance survey maps
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This piece creates a foil for the monumentality of the pulp fibre tower, through its opacity and ephemerality. The sheer translucence of the 32 pieces of old map canvas are cast from the moulded pulp tower.
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The tower seems otherworldly and fragile it takes up a space but appears to be bridging the gap between the negative and positive space, a space within a space, its sheer fabric dissolves physical boundaries giving the viewer the perception of emptiness and a place of transience.
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In the Presence of Absence 2025
Shredded cardboard
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If we take the translation of Michael de Certeau's central idea that the 'everyday' is a space for negotiation and transformation and everything is a process, we can use that literally in an art context using everyday resources in ways that were not originally intended or foreseen by those who designed or enforced the rules associated with the product, by looking for the diversity within the materiality.
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Although this material was challenging its expanding structure eventually worked in my favour. The elevation of the material that is fundamental to my practice is seen in this piece by working closely with its intrinsic qualities brings its uniqueness into visibility. The shredded cardboard spheres appear heavy, solid and immoveable which references emotional and physical connectivity to our own lived experiences.
Do You Like Me Now? 2025
Cardboard bottle packaging
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The individual pieces of bottle packaging are made stronger both physically and visually when joined to form a cylinder. Then hung to form a stacked tower, as the hanging string stretches it forms bends and folds until it settles into a cranked organic shape.
This piece has through initial failure been successful, mainly due to the material itself. Although the process controlled the making to an extent the materiality won out. Understanding how the materials react to the process and being able to adapt and respond to the material has been key to this ever evolving piece of work.
Dictatorship of the Viewer 2025
Canvas from the back of old Ordnance Survey maps and graphite pencil
This piece is imbued with lived experience, abstracting found ephemera and responding to its past usage. The repetitive formations creeping from a reduced start, rising to create a life of its own. Working with the materials inherent qualities to recognise its worth and to reframe its agency.
The human spirit and material shaking hands with one another as per Gutai philosophy.
What We See in the Shadows (2025) Steel Bedsprings and graphite pencil
2.2 metres x 1 metre variable
The twisted and pulled bedspring coils create, by their inherent quality, a tension. A three-dimensional scribble that captures a restless and rhythmical dynamic.
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The graphite pencil mirroring the sculpture adds a floating and ephemeral quality. The daylight shadows confuse perceptions and encourage the viewer to observe more closely, reconsider and find meaning in the tangled forms. The sculpture has now become both physical and transient with an interconnectedness between form and shadow.
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'things freed from the drudgery of being useful' can be transformed. (Benjamin:n.d.)
Benjamin, W. (1999). The Arcades Project. Cambridge, Ma: The Belknap Pr. of Harvard Univ. Pr. P.10 (online) Available at: https://monoskop.org/images/e/e4/Benjamin_Walter_The_Arcades_Project.pdf