Natalie Ryan

The Nothing, 2025
Animatronics, speakers, faux fur, prosthetic eyes, jaw and tongue, steel, resin
140 × 50 × 123 cm

The Nothing draws on formative influences from 1980s and 1990s film and television, where puppetry, prosthetics and special effects shaped early encounters with the uncanny.

Referencing The NeverEnding Story (1984), the work centres on the character of Gmork, a wolf-like embodiment of an unseen force driven by fear and despair. Both unsettling and mesmerising, this figure became an early conduit through which Natalie Ryan engaged with ideas of mortality, grief and the unknown.

Here, Ryan translates this memory into sculptural form, combining animatronics and sound with highly detailed materials to create a work that feels both lifelike and theatrical. The surface oscillates between illusion and artifice, heightening a sense of presence that is at once familiar and disquieting.

While rooted in nostalgia, The Nothing speaks to the present moment, where fear continues to operate as a mechanism of influence and control, shaping perception, power and belief.

“People who have no hopes are easy to control; and whoever has the control… has the power.”
Gmork, The NeverEnding Story (1984), dir. Wolfgang Petersen