CONTAINER WORKS

Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari? by @abpoulson continues until Tuesday 30 June ☁️ In this work Abby explores insider and outsider perspectives, in a hyperlocal sense. The cyanotype images within the vitrine present a series of invitations to place, in this context, Dinas Mawddwy, in North Wales. CONTAINER WORKS is publicly accessible 24/7 for free. On Sunday mornings we open up for free teas and coffees. No advance notice required.

On Sunday 3 May, we’re hosting a Reading Group 📚 exploring some of the research and interlinked texts from @abpoulson Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari? We’ll be reading texts from Mahdi Sabbagh, Gillian Clarke, and Morgan Owen. If you would like to join, please get in touch with us for time and location details. 🏡 Participation is free, and refreshments will be provided. 🌞

Beth sy’n cael ei ystyried yn famiaith? Yr iaith gyntaf ni’n dysgu yn ein cartref? Neu’r iaith tyfon ni lan yn siarad yn ein plentyndod cynnar? Beth am yr iaith ni wedi colli, neu eisiau siarad, ond ddim yn gallu? Yng Nghymru, rydym yn gwybod bod yr iaith yn fyw. Mae Cymraeg yn frithion y tir, mewn golau a staen. // What is considered a mother tongue? The first language we learned at home? Or the language we grew up speaking from early childhood? What about the language we’ve lost, or long to speak, but can’t? In Cymru (Wales) where Cymraeg still lives, Cymraeg dapples its land and people, in lightness and in stains. (Abby Poulson, 2026) Accompanying Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari? is a text exchange between artists and collaborators @abpoulson and @alexanderstubbss . Exploring traditions, photography, and language, the exchange pulls at the threads binding colonial power in language and asks the reader to imagine a time beyond the photograph where communication is decentralised. Available to read in person at CONTAINER WORKS, or via PDF download on request. Translation by Abby Poulson. Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari? is on until Tuesday 30 June

Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari? A new piece made for @container.wks which is on display until Tuesday 30 June 2026. CONTAINER WORKS is a developing space made from a wall vitrine, installed behind a row of terraced houses in Hull. It is located at the end of a tenfoot* and is secured to a red brick wall. It’s a space for artists to show their work in a new context; one which is part-public, part-domestic and is led by artist and collaborator @alexanderstubbss Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari? explores insider and outsider perspectives, in a hyperlocal sense. The cyanotype images within the vitrine present a series of invitations to place, in this context, Dinas Mawddwy, in North Wales. Here is some of the research. The piece is accompanied by a public programme and two new texts by Alexander Stubbs and myself, and is available to read via a public handout + digital file. Follow @container.wks to see more exciting development, activities to get involved in and inspiration 🐎 * Tenfoot is a word commonly used to describe a passageway in the City of Hull in East Yorkshire and the surrounding area, so called due to the passageway being 10ft wide.

Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari?, a new work by Abby Poulson, is on display until Tuesday 30 June 2026. Mae Mari Lwyd yn draddodiad Cymreig, wedi ffugio, sydd yn cael i gynnal o gwmpas nadolig a’r calan newydd. Mae Mari, yn benglog ceffyl wedi’i osod ar bolyn, yn cael i ddal gan berson sy’n cuddio o’i dan liain gwyn. Mae hi wedi addurno a chlychau a rhubanau ac yn cael ei arddangos o ddrws i ddrws trwy strydoedd yn eithaf bygythiol. Yn ymuno gyda hi, mae grŵp o garolwyr sy’n defnyddio caneuon fel brwydr odli, o’r enw pwnco. Y rhagdybiaeth draddodiadol yw canu trwy odlau nol ac ymlaen rhwng tu allan a thu fewn y tŷ, fel math o gystadleuaeth i ennill mynediad. Unwaith mae’r mynediad wedi ei ennill, mae pawb yn dilyn Mari ac yn mynd i mewn. Maen nhw’n dathlu trwy rannu diodydd a bwyd, wedyn bant a nhw i geisio’r drws nesaf. Mae’r pwnco yn parhau trwy’r nos. // Mari Lwyd is a made–up Welsh tradition, practiced around Christmas and New Year. Mari, physically, is a horse’s skull mounted to a pole, held by a person who hides under her with a white sheet. She is decorated with bells and ribbons, and paraded door to door through streets quite menacingly. Joining her, is a group of carollers who use songs in a rhyming battle, called pwnco. The traditional premise is to sing through rhyme back and forth between the outside and inside of a dwelling, as a type of battle to gain entry into the home. Once entry is won, everyone follows Mari and enters the home. They celebrate by sharing drink and food, then onwards they go to try the next door. The pwnco continues through the night. @abpoulson (she/her, b. 1998) is an artist, photographer, and curator from Carmarthenshire, based in Wales. New writing from Alexander Stubbs and Abby Poulson accompanies the work, and is available to read via a public handout + digital file.

Ydych chi wedi gweld Mari? // Have you seen Mari? is a new work by artist, photographer, and curator Abby Poulson. @abpoulson is from Carmarthenshire, based in Wales. Her artistic practice explores themes of cultural heritage and rurality, often rooted in the landscape and identity of place. Through personal research and inquiry, she works across disciplines, combining lens-based media, analogue processes, and experimental or cameraless techniques. Public Programme 📢 📖 Reading Group Sunday 3 May 🎥 Film Screening The Wolf Man (1941) Sunday 24 May After his brother’s death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. Events soon take a turn for the worse when Larry is bitten by a werewolf. ☕️ Relaxed Mornings Sundays 10am - 12pm CONTAINER WORKS is open on Sunday mornings for free teas and coffees. No advance notice required. Weather permitting. To participate in the public programme, please get in touch directly.

CONTAINER WORKS IS… Nine statements defining the working practices of this curatorial framework. Underpinned and held in check by the agreement that: THIS IS THE BASELINE; IT WILL CHANGE TOMORROW

CONTAINER WORKS will host the work of @abpoulson in April 2026, marking the beginning of our 2026 programme. Abby Poulson (she/her, b. 1998) is an artist, photographer, and curator from Carmarthenshire, based in Wales. Her artistic practice explores themes of cultural heritage and rurality, often rooted in the landscape and identity of place. Through personal research and inquiry, she works across disciplines, combining lens-based media, analogue processes, and experimental or cameraless techniques. A small programme of invitational and public gatherings will emerge alongside the work on display. 📷: Abby Poulson, Towy Valley, developed in Sticky Willy, 35mm analogue print. Photograph courtesy of the artist.

CONTAINER WORKS will be showing the work of Abby Poulson, Anna Farley, and Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin in 2026. April - June Abby Poulson Abby Poulson (she/her, b. 1998) is an artist, photographer, and curator from Carmarthenshire, based in Wales. Her artistic practice explores themes of cultural heritage and rurality, often rooted in the landscape and identity of place. Through personal research and inquiry, she works across disciplines, combining lens-based media, analogue processes, and experimental or cameraless techniques. @abpoulson July - September Anna Farley Anna Farley (b.1989) is an autistic artist based near Hull. She makes work exploring her autism and co-occurring conditions & UK disability benefit culture. Anna’s practice is socially engaged & process based, focusing on the principle of inclusion. It sees her consult and network with other members from the disabled community and beyond. Carving methods of access to the art industry on her own terms. She creates and delivers bespoke autism inclusion training for arts institutions & organisations nationally and internationally. In 2024 Anna undertook a flexible residency to develop Your Space for Tate St Ives. @the.anna.log October - December Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin is an artist based in London. Her multidisciplinary practice considers notions of connectivity, Afro-Caribbean diasporic identity, spiritual ecology, and slowness as solace. Via seen and unseen methods of communication, she engages in aesthetic exploration, cultural research, and communal exchange. @oceanloren 📸 Abby Poulson, Sticky Willy, 35mm analogue print. Photograph courtesy of the artist. Anna Farley, artist holding white plastic tubing to their ear and smiling. Photograph courtesy of the artist. Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin, Pendulum: Still, 2024, 300x50x10cm, dimensions variable. Cut glass, epoxy, Caribbean-sun-charged clear quartz, stainless steel chain. Photography by Rita Silva/Studio Damian Griffiths.

The 2026 programme for CONTAINER WORKS is here! We’re pleased to announce that we’re working with Abby Poulson, Anna Farley, and Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin over the next year to present work in our container. A public and invitational programme will accompany each season, exploring the artists’ work and the context of CONTAINER WORKS as a part-public, part-domestic artist space. @abpoulson @the.anna.log @oceanloren

CONTAINER WORKS is led by @alexanderstubbss working with artists to develop new work in semi-public contexts. CONTAINER WORKS is underpinned by slow and small approaches to making work, investigating exchange, and deliberate labour.

CONTAINER WORKS is a developing space made from a wall vitrine, installed behind a row of terraced houses. It is located at the end of a tenfoot* and is secured to a red brick wall. It’s a space for artists to show their work in a new context; one which is part-public, part-domestic. A thinking space, a testing space, an unfinished space. * Tenfoot is a word commonly used to describe a passageway in the City of Hull in East Yorkshire and the surrounding area, so called due to the passageway being 10ft wide.