NONSENSE
Exhibition at Oslo Kaffebar, June 2015
ALL WORK FOR SALE. Email for enquiries.
Exhibition statement:
Emily Perry is a British artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her training was in Sculpture and she primarily works in performance, installation and sculpture, however she also does a lot of drawing. She describes drawing as much more free and intuitive than her other projects and, for that reason, in this exhibition has focused on not planning or “over-thinking” her drawings. Some of these works are therefore purely explorations of colour and form and the act of drawing, while others seem to depict strange, nonsensical environments containing sometimes humanoid creatures. Perry embraces “uncomfortableness” in her work believing it to be amongst the most “human” of experiences; this favouritism of a slightly awkward aesthetic can also be seen in this drawing collection.
All the drawings were made for this exhibition over a two month period.
Willkommen Emily
Exhibition at Oslo Kaffebar, October 2014
Foreign (SOLD)
Exhibition statement:
I moved to Berlin 2 months ago from England and I work as an au pair for a German family. This exhibition explores my initial experience of living and working with a family who speak a foreign language. It is the 4 children, who are all under the age of 7, who have most inspired these works.
It has felt natural to draw bodily, nonsensical, monstrous yet playful creatures. I have depicted the children as monsters, or cartoony creatures, to demonstrate my overwhelming feeling of isolation in relation with them and their unfamiliarity. Many of these drawings have no background, the creatures have no setting; there is only a bleak nothingness where their physicality dominates. The scenes are usually based on everyday activities I do with the children; brushing teeth, making dinner, walking home from school. Even in these mundane tasks, I have felt so stupid and lonely. At first, when the children spoke to me in German I experienced a suffocating silence where I was unable to make any noise. These silences seemed to last forever. I became more aware of my body: I realised that I could communicate with the children through my actions. Likewise I became more aware of their physicality.
The children’s drawings really excite me. I decided to draw into them, often ‘bricking-in’ or surrounding their drawing with some bleak solid context. The context being a grey wall or more bricks. I was thinking about the Berlin Wall, something that was literally built through people’s lives. I imagined the children building a Lego wall across the living room then forcing the family to respect its boundaries. It feels horrible to edit a child’s drawing. It is as if I am stifling them or dragging their imagination down to a horrible reality. This is very different work from that which I have done before; at this time, in this situation, this is what has happened.
2012
Embellished blind drawing of my vagina- lipstick, eyeliner, blusher and pencil.
Embellished blind drawing of my vagina- eyeliner, blusher and pencil.
2013
Used wax strips, pubic hair and blood.
2013
Embroidery thread on canvas.
2013
Collage plan for sculpture.
2013
Three hairs.
2016
Self portraits. Pen on paper.
2012
Blind pencil drawing on postcard.
2012
Blind pencil drawing from feeling my torso.
Blind pencil drawing from feeling my body head to toe.
2012
Blind pen drawing of my left arm.
Blind drawing of pubic hair.
2013
Water colour.
2013
Acrylic paint
2013
Acrylic paint.
2013
Water colour.