Yvonne McGill

Yvonne McGill is an Auckland based artist with a Master of Fine Arts from Elam. Her work focuses on edge, shape, and colour; in particular the nature of paint and the way it can be manipulated. Her approach is one of experimentation and is largely process orientated. Techniques for applying and moving paint are varied, including the use of things such as baked bean tins, leaf blowers, floor polishers and squeeze bottles. In some paintings the paint itself is peeled off and reapplied as a weaving or collage. Concrete sculptures that were undertaken in 2005 become an extension of the tactile nature of earlier paintings. The sculptures, with their addition of paint, confuse the boundary between genres and highlight the physical qualities of the materials. McGill has an interest in the conjunction of different, sometimes discordant, elements. I see this in the eclectic infrastructures in which we live. Through the push and pull of constructed against looser elements a space is set up that challenges the viewer. I guess within each of us there is a desire to order and control our surroundings and also a conflicting desire to break away.