Jerry Pethick (1935?2003) was born in London, Ontario and in 1957 moved to London, UK to study at Chelsea College of Art and later at the Royal College of Art. In 1968 he moved to Ann Arbor and then San Francisco and in 1975 moved permanently to Hornby Island, British Columbia, where he lived and worked until the end of his life. Pethick's oeuvre has always evoked something of the amateur scientist and inventor. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he became widely known for his pioneering work with holography in London and San Francisco. While he stopped working with holograms when he moved to Hornby Island, the nature of visual perception, the history of optics and integral (or fly's eye) photography using multiple lenses remained central to his work. Although Pethick draws upon a sophisticated in-depth understanding of science and art history, his work is constructed from modest materials and found objects, including cheap plastic Fresnel lenses, discarded sinks, hay bales, light bulbs, bicycle tyres or flotsam and jetsam washed ashore. Although known for his large sculptural works, lesser known is Pethick's parallel practice that resulted in a large number of what might be termed "domestic-scaled objects" that explore and analyses many of the same concerns and research channels as the large sculptures. 70 colour and b/w illustrations
