- All around Memphis, from Overton Square to Overton Park, from Le Bonheur Children's Hospital to the Botanic Garden, stand a variety of large scale, hand-fabricated metal sculptures.

Some are simple, some are elaborate, some are brightly hued, some move in the wind, and some move at the touch of a hand.

These varied works of public art are crafted by one artist, working right here in Memphis, and today, you'll meet her.

I'm Chris McCoy, and this is A Conversation with Yvonne Bobo.

[gentle music] We are here in the center of the Yvonne Bobo empire, Off the Walls Arts.

[Yvonne laughs] This is your studio.

This is where she welds, and well, does all the other stuff that she does.

Thank you so much for letting us in your space today.

- Oh, well thank you Chris.

It's an honor to be recognized and have people interested in what I do, so.

- Well, I mean, like we said in the intro, people know your work, right?

So how did you get to Memphis?

Where are you from originally?

- I grew up in central Florida, north central, which I call prison country.

[Chris chuckles] And it's kind of a rural area with a lot of state prisons, and my only dream was to not live there.

And so I went to college in Boston, Boston University.

I've traveled a lot in the world.

I always say, I crossed two oceans to get to Memphis, which does not seem necessary, but I was very curious about the world.

And then I settled in Memphis in 1999.

- So what'd you do?

You know, big monumental public sculpture.

There's a pretty high barrier to entry to that art form.

How did you get into it?

- I think it's just, I'm a very stubborn and driven person, and I think there's no particular training to make me.

You know, when I was traveling, anytime I saw an artisan with a skill, I would try to apprentice.

You know, I worked as a wood carver in Istanbul, like doing like Ottoman Empire reproduction.

I could do a lot of crazy jobs.

So, you know, I would just be like, "I wanna learn that," and then go and go do it.

Yeah, so, and really large-scale sculpture was sort of that way too.

[tool hissing] You know, I had a opportunity and I jumped in the deep end.

[both laughs] - Just do it.

Just do it, right?

- Sink or swim.

Right, yeah.

- Well, so the first big project that you did in Memphis was the Peabody Park renovation, right?

When was that?

- I believe that we, I submitted, you know, probably in 2001?

Yes, I had been working with Carol DeForest.

She was the first artist in Memphis to do the 1% for Art program, and that was being introduced at the time, probably '99, 2000.

And they started making calls to artists for parks.

Any public building is part of that program, anything that the City of Memphis owns, and it can be Shelby County also 'cause the school system too.

- So they're supposed to spend 1% of the budget on some kind of art or improvement.

- Right, 1% of the construction budget.

- Construction budget, yeah.

- Exactly.

- Yeah, so you got the Peabody Park gig.

- Right, and there was a lot of, sort of talk, you know, City Council, I mean, I can't remember any of these people exactly, but I can remember one particular person just being like, "Why would we pay for art?

Nobody likes it or understands it."

And I thought, "What sort of town am I really... Where have I moved to?"

[both laughs] Yeah, maybe it was, town was the operative word there, but I was like, it seemed very narrow minded about art.

And I had been living, you know, in Boston, and I had just come from San Francisco to Tennessee.

Also spent a year in Australia, so I was sort of thought, I thought people liked art, I guess.

[laughs] And so, you know, we went to meetings, you know, the 1% Art was new, and so, you know, they were either defending it or condemning it, and people thought, "Oh, Memphis won't take care of it.

We'll just spend all this money and it'll be a waste."

But Peabody Park really transformed.

It went from a park where people didn't go.

Some people were just living on the tracks there, and it just wasn't a place you would take your kids or walk your dog.

And now I think it really transformed, and I think it speaks to the value of public art and what it can do in a city, you know, like Memphis.

It really has transformed many of our parks and our public spaces.

- Well, you know, my experience with Peabody Park in the last few years has been kids' birthday parties.

- Sure.

- You know, [laughs] so that's absolutely has transformed that space, for sure.

Well, you've done a lot of other stuff around town, like we were talking about earlier.

You did one of the portals in Overton Park.

- That's right, for the Old Forest.

- The Old Forest, yeah.

- Yeah.

- This is the one by the clubhouse, right?

- That's right, yes.

So, that's the first one.

It's the one closest to Poplar.

- The one closest to Poplar, yeah.

- Yes, and the idea, you know, there were three artists chosen.

And so mine is sort of based on, I mean, the old forest is a home or a sanctuary for many birds, and it's a, you know, it's a treasure in the middle of the city.

So my piece is about birds.

It's like a flight of birds.

It's called "Rhapsody".

So it's just sort of this exuberant flight.

And so I kind of had a bird phase there for a while.

I have a lot of bird themes, so.

- Yeah, but, totally, I know exactly the piece that you're talking about, and it's very eye catching.

- It was kind of a funny story 'cause I don't know if you ever visited my other studio, but it had ceilings not unlike these.

These are only a little over 11 feet.

And so people were like, "How do you build such large work in such a small space?"

And I used to call it like, shop in a bottle, you know, like this idea, 'cause I would have to build things that I could not remove from my studio.

Then I have to, you know, it's a big giant puzzle, you know, and deconstruct, and then reconstruct.

And so that is sort of how I would build such large scale.

And so when we got to Overton Park to do the portal, we had already built it in the studio and were rebuilding it.

So it appeared almost magically, in like a day.

And so people who jog there regularly were sort of taken aback.

They're like, "Oh, where is this going?"

And we're like, "It's going right here."

And they're like, "Well, how will they drive on the road?"

I had a conversation with a man about this and I said, "It's a gate."

And so people didn't know that it would open and close, 'cause it looks like a sculpture, but it's also a functional.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So, you know, I'm interested in mechanics, and you know, I always claim to be a bit of an engineer, although I have no real training, other than 25 years worth of building really weird and big stuff.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - If that was worth anything, right.

- How do you start, you know?

Do you start with sketches?

Do you, like, how do you even start?

- So I, people laugh, they think I'm kidding.

I do start with paper a lot of the time, and I'm always sort of taken aback 'cause sometimes I forget that it seems frivolous that I'm working with paper.

Like, why aren't you working with steel, or doing something?

'Cause, you know?

'Cause it's very hard to be free with steel.

It's very, you know, it's hard to move, it's heavy.

You know, it's expensive, you know, so all these things, and so paper, I think I have more freedom in the design stage then.

Once you're committed to a large-scale sculpture, you can't just change your mind, or make some, you know what I mean?

It's very difficult to change course.

- It's an unforgiving medium.

- It really is, and on this scale too, because you've already committed to materials, you know, and so I build, I'll show you later, some of my models around the studio, and I feel like they, my art stays true to the model because sometimes I look for pictures of my work in my phone or in my computer, and I pull up a picture of the model at the site, and then I realize that it's not the same.

You know, like I mistake them because they look the same.

- Oh, wow.

- You see what I mean?

I'm like, oh, that's my hand under it.

That's not really the sculpture.

That's me standing with a model going, "This is what it's gonna look like."

And so the model is very important to me.

That's how I work.

I'm not an amazing illustrator.

I sketch in 3D.

I draw, but only what I've already built.

So that's something people find amusing, I guess, like, I should be able to draw these things.

I was like, I can only build them [Chris laughs] and draw them later, right?

- I'm always fascinated with artist's process and how you get to the final product, because I think a lot of people don't think about art in those terms.

It's just like you said, with the Overton Park piece, from their point of view, it just appeared one day, but that was like a year's worth of work for you, right?

- Right, yeah, so, and then it just appeared, with a help of a little crane, and a little lift- - And some engineers and some- - Oh yeah.

- You know- - Arguing with some engineers, yes, sometimes, yeah, [Chris laughs] But yeah, sometimes it just, you know, in a couple of days we can install something and people have no idea the time we spent, or the bizarre lengths we go to remove it from, you know, 'cause the large work, how do you transport it on the road?

How do you get it out of your door?

When I was in Cooper Young, my door was 42 inches wide.

I built Peabody Park.

I mean, that big solar system is like nine feet across.

How did I get it out the door?

Hm, one wonders, right?

You know, so it's interesting, you know, to me.

I mean, maybe people never think about it.

- Yeah.

- People who build might, but, you know, like maybe even Overton Square, like, I don't know, like there are process that I go through that I think are lost many times from the viewer because of maybe they don't know about how to build things.

- Well, that's the magic trick, that's the magic trick.

- Yeah, that's the magic trick, right.

- Penn Jillette said, "There's no magic.

"I'm just willing to go to more trouble than you think it's worth."

[both laughs] - I like that, yeah.

- Well, but you mentioned the Overton Square piece, which is one of my favorites of yours.

I just feel like it really, and that's on the corner of Cooper and well- - And Madison, right there at the corner, yeah.

I mean, it is truly the corner piece because, of course, the restaurant has their outdoor space.

So it kind of moves it just a little west.

- But to me, I mean, in a lot of how these, you know, a lot of your work is how do these art pieces interact with the environment that they're in?

- It's very important to me.

I think, as an artist in college, I was very interested in installation work and sort of one of those sort of fantasy jobs though.

Like, you can't really sell installations, you know, like, you know what I mean?

Like, you only see them in museums or whatever, you know.

And so that's one thing I try to do here at at Off the Walls Arts in the Artist Collective, is make a place where we can create an environment.

And also with my public art, they're more in the environment, you experience them, you know, like I said, some have movement.

They're in your space, you're like spending time with the pieces, or you're seeing it while you're out doing things.

You know, it's just like, it has different impact than going to a museum say, you know.

It's sort of more of an environment where you're expecting to see art.

You know, so it's a different impact.

- Yeah, it's a transformation of the environment, you know.

- Exactly, yeah.

- What is the Overton Square piece called?

- It's called "Gyroscopic," and it's sort of all based on, fascinated by gyroscopes, of course, and the movement.

So it's like a movement, you know, within another movement, within a stationary object, and there's a particular twist that... That piece really gets activated if the winds are really high.

Like there's a motor that turns it, and it's also illuminated.

But, if when we have really big winds, there's another part that spins on its own.

And yeah, and so there's a twist in the, the stainless is welded into a twist, to create a sort of a wind, to direct the wind.

- Yeah, and what I really like about it is that if you think, you know, I mean obviously you've thought about it, but the actual footprint of that piece is not huge, is it?

- That's true, and it was one of the factors that I sort of bullied my way into the corner there.

Lou Lova was having a meeting with me about putting a sculpture in a part of, like down by Bayou parking lot, 'cause they didn't like a block wall that was there.

And I have to say I thought, "Ugh, what a dreadful place to put a piece of art."

I was just wanting to back into the block wall and maybe do away with that problem for him.

And I was like, "I've gotta go about this a different way.

How can I get a better spot in Overton Square?"

Like, I wanna be part of this project.

And so I was working on a model where I had a spinning square, and it was inside of a couple of rings.

And you know, with Overton Square, playing with that twisted square and playing with the wind, moving an object, obviously fans are more efficient at spinning around, but they're not that interesting to look at.

At some point, let's try to move something more difficult, something that doesn't naturally spin, and that was interesting at the time.

And so I just had a giant model in the back of my truck when I went to the meeting, and Lou was late to the meeting 'cause he was in my truck, like looking at the thing.

He didn't know, and so it was this whole thing.

And then the project, the restaurant wanted more of the corner space, and there wasn't enough room for the sculpture they had in mind.

And then I said, "Mine only has the three-foot footprint, and it's 26 feet tall, and it spins."

And he was like, "Well, that's what we'll do."

- Sold.

- And I was like, it was exhilarating, 'cause I walked into that meeting going, "I am not gonna get any work here."

[laughs] Because I'm gonna be like, "I am not building that other thing, no."

- And so you've said to me that you get the most comments probably on the West Cancer Center piece, right?

- It is.

I think it's 'cause it's such an emotionally loaded piece.

You know, people are at a very difficult time, you know, and they're there for periods of time, either getting treatment or diagnostics.

And so people sit in the waiting room, and that piece is I guess 36 feet tall that you can see, and then there's another six feet into the ceiling where the bearings are.

And so it's nice when people recognize that, or they come up to me and say something.

So, you know, it makes me feel nice that it was comforting or, you know.

- Yeah, 'cause the people who are seeing that, a lot of 'em are not having good days.

- No, so it's a struggle, right?

- Yeah.

- Life is uncertain, but I chose "The Murmuration", because I feel like it's one of those natural phenomena.

We watch these thousands of birds flying in unison, and then people are like, well, why do the birds do it?

You know, these birds, what are they up to?

And you know, they find shelter and community, safety in numbers, warmth, they're traveling, you know, in seasons.

You know, so I feel like it was a very beautiful, sort of, metaphor for like, the journey that these people are on at West Cancer, so.

- Well, and then you have a couple pieces at the Botanic Gardens.

- Yes.

David Lusk approached me.

They wanted to invite me to be part of the sculpture garden, which were all, you know, a generation ahead of me, sculptors, you know, in Memphis.

And so I was thrilled to do it.

And so I have a piece there that goes over the walkway, as you go to the children's area, and the gardens beyond.

But I also have a mechanical crane there.

I call it "Kinetic Crane", and it's sort of based on, you know, like a sandhill crane or just a big bird that flies.

But it has a movement, and it goes off once an hour, and the wings, you know, they move up and then they come back down, you know, and it runs for a little while, and then it's stationary in the pond, in the main building.

- We are here, in Off the Walls Arts, and how did this place come about?

- Wow, you know, I kept getting moved out of like, neighborhoods that artists kind of improved.

So like Cooper Young, you know, the Arts District, and then my rent got doubled over there.

So then I was out at Memphis Depot for a while, out Airways.

And then I moved to Crosstown, and then I realized that I was about to get moved out of that area too, 'cause the real estate going crazy because of Concourse.

It's just a matter of time.

And so I said, "I've got to buy a building, 'cause everywhere I go as an artist, I make the area better," but as soon as the neighborhood's better, real estate just, you know, moves in restaurants or you know, you saw it on Broad Street, you see it in Cooper Young, you see it in Crosstown.

I mean, like- - You see it downtown.

- Downtown's just all of us who were there in the beginning, they just, you know, so people who, you know, we've got healthcare there now instead of a flea market, or no recording studio, or t-shirt shops.

You know, it's just like the, you know, we follow, some of us have had to find new studios.

So I said, "I'm gonna buy something."

So I started looking around, and my welding supply house across the street, so I kept seeing this building and it was in disrepair.

So we started investigating who owned it.

Who was blighting the neighborhood with this building.

[laughs] State of Tennessee, yeah.

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah.

Southwest Community College and the state of Tennessee, they were the owners.

- So this was an electrical- - That's true, originally, back in the '40s and '50s, this was sort of an electric neighborhood.

There was several electric component warehouses.

I guess they either made stuff or imported, and, you know, that was their specialty.

And then it was storage for a long time, and then Southwest bought it, and they were gonna make the paramedic school here, I think.

And it didn't really fit the requirements for parking, and so it just became a property that they purchased but could not use.

And eventually, after two years of harassing them, it got before their, you have to, I don't know, committees and court, you know, if they vote on it, that they should put it up for auction.

And so then we went to blind auction to try to purchase it.

And I was the highest bidder.

Yeah.

[both laughs] - But I mean, it's huge.

- Yeah.

It's 27,000 square feet.

- That's great.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, so, I mean, what was the idea?

- So I thought, well, great, that I need a space for me, but what about all the other artists who are having the same experience as me, right?

People who are renting places in neighborhoods that they don't feel safe, and they're isolated, 'cause they're often industrial parks that are no longer occupied by, you know, more industry or corporations, or whoever used 'em to begin with, they're just more dilapidated, you know.

And so you find people renting, and I thought, "Well, if we have a big enough space, then we all get together."

And then this idea that it would be around other artists, which a lot of us miss that community after college, you know, it's hard to maintain that connection, you know?

And so I wanted to create a space where artists could be together and, you know, have a little synergy amongst each other.

Yeah, collaborate.

- And so you have a whole bunch of tenants here.

- We do.

- In artist spaces.

- Right, and then we also have a gallery.

We have an event space where we try to do large scale collaborative pieces, where we bring sculpture, music, dance, performing arts, just whatever, bring it all together and see what happens.

You know, let the community have a space to express itself.

We don't really sell a lot of work.

We have no funding or agenda, but, you know, maybe that's the good part, I guess.

[laughs] - Yeah, exactly.

You have freedom is what you have.

- We do.

- Yeah, for sure.

Well, what's next?

What are you working on now?

- Well, we're currently at Off the Walls, we have our "Planet Luminarus".

We did a community build in the spring.

People would come in and we built this canyon wall, and we worked with Infinity Stairs to do a projection mapping on it.

And we've had a lot of different artists participate in 3D exhibits and interactive pieces.

That's been some very fun events.

And we kind of wanna keep with this trend of building our own planet.

Like maybe it's kind of an interesting idea [laughs] to make a new planet if you don't like the one you're on, or something.

I feel like it's good to be able to build something and be part of something bigger than yourself, especially, you know, times don't seem good.

It's focus your energy in a positive way.

- Mm-hmm.

And it seems to me too that this is all part of everything we've been talking about.

You know, you create environments, - Right, and I like to share that process because we do some work with children, and this project, we did work with Bellevue Middle, but when we worked with them before, we built these giant puppets, and then these puppets were part of a parade that we had a big event, a community event here at Off The Walls.

But then they, University of Memphis, they purchased our puppets to be in a production, a dance production, and then we took the kids to see the dance production with their puppets.

So they got to see, like, that something that they built could be part of a much larger art project.

And I think that's so uncommon to have that experience, to be a part of something on that scale, especially as a young person.

I certainly never was, but you know, maybe it has an impact.

Maybe they dream a little bigger.

- Yeah, it teaches collaboration, I think, which is really important.

I think there's too much emphasis on competition.

- Well, that is a shame because there's just not enough resources in Memphis for artists, and we do find ourselves competing.

Oh, I do need to mention our Off the Rails project, which is another public idea that we have.

My husband, Brendan Duffy, has secured the property that was a decommissioned railroad from Norfolk Southern, which runs from the old Commercial Appeal, on Union Avenue, all the way back towards what would be Elvis, well, Bellevue Avenue.

And so we sort of tie together the Medical District, The Ravine, you know, Sun Studio to south Memphis, where we have, you know, Off the Walls Arts.

We also have Elmwood Cemetery, and then beyond, to Soulsville.

And so we feel like it's a fantastic opportunity to have art, music, and a place to exercise in the city, a place to interact with nature.

You know, we have bunnies, and birds, and occasionally wild turkey, yes.

- Wild turkeys - In the middle of the city.

[laughs] Yeah.

- Wow, I didn't know we had wild turkeys in the city.

- We had one, he was hanging out for about three days.

- Oh, wow.

[laughs] - Yeah.

And so we were like, is that a wild turkey?

Yes it is.

So it's an ongoing project.

We are trying to get support from the City, and some funding to develop this.

And we're currently up for a Healthy Built Environments grant, 'cause we wanna bring farmer's markets, exercise, entertainment, all to south Memphis.

- Well, once again, creating environments and improving environments.

Yvonne, I mean, thank you so much for letting us, you know, into your space today, and letting people get a chance to understand and hear about what you do.

And you know, I guess we'll see you on the trails, huh?

- Exactly.

Thank you so much, Chris.

- Thanks.

Thank y'all for watching.

This has been A Conversation with Yvonne Bobo.

I'm Chris McCoy.

[bright music] [tool grinding] [bright music continues] [tool whirring] [acoustic guitar chords]