Other stories
Making time
Since becoming Emeritus Professor in 2017, when I was relieved of significant administrative and teaching commitments, I have enjoyed spending more time making small sculptures from found objects such as urban debris and driftwood. This had previously been a largely private preoccupation that I defined as a therapeutic ‘hobby’, but has increasingly become an enjoyable creative pursuit, albeit one tempered by my art critical anxieties and desires to avoid plagiarising a modernist legacy of collage and sculptures made from ‘found objects’.
I have exhibited a few works in small local shows in Burgundy, Wales and Portland. The most recent, ‘All Washed Up – On Chesil Beach’, was shown at the B-Side Gallery in Fortuneswell, Portland, Dorset in September 2023, as part of the B-Side Art Festival. Here are a few images from that show:
From the press release:
‘Perry uses these found materials and odd bits of detritus to suggest abstract patterns and evocative, coloured surfaces. The pitted and rhythmic textures of washed-up wood are accentuated through odd juxtapositions. Oddly shaped pieces of wood and plastic are often used to evoke more abstract concepts of floating, twisting, flying, scratching or flapping. The abstract, rhythmic shapes, decorative colours and changing tones of these roughly made sculptures are intended to be suggestive and even humorous, evoking both critical and playful associations. Did all this stuff really come out of the sea? Why are we dumping so much waste in the oceans? Can rubbish be made to look beautiful?’