Paperworks

1 review for Paperworks

1. 

   Jonathan Garratt, BA Cantab, FRSA – February 12, 2024

   Art lovers might need a warning: this is art with roots, where magic is on the menu. It seems so rare these days to come across a singular voice that has authority. Janet Perrior’s work can give a sensation of being encouraged to travel through a portal and find oneself in a dimension where nothing is “strange” or “other”. This is work in which to immerse our animal selves and enjoy the surprises. To relish a rare delight in uncovering a language of acute definition and warm tenderness with colour. In the right hands, art can begin on a familiar runway and then take off into unimagined spaces through the fuel of enquiry.

   She was lucky enough to experience a proper grounding in cultural practice and it is a personal history that has flowered into a visual language of considerable value. Her exposure to Japanese attitudes to artistic standards and creativity has paid off handsomely, delivering, for the viewer, a confection of initial pleasure, detailed inspection of the structure and finally a delight in the final marriage. Ultimately this is a demonstration of curiosity, risk, finely honed skills and flair. Worth, in other words. A love story. It’s what we are here for, ultimately. Janet Perrior’s artistic practice reveals an amalgam of intelligent sensitivity to materials, processes and structure, a courage in welcoming inherent risks and a resulting body of work that possesses all the power of the very best tribal art. Some of the paper work (Seam,1997) comes across as metaphoric, emulating other matter (stone) or musical experiences (Syncopation 2001). Renditions by other means. Much of the earlier work seems to duck and weave between painting, textiles and sculpture. Running through all of it are strands of confidently playing with beauty. In an international culture now of artists scrabbling over one another for notoriety and acclaim, this lone voice is entirely superior. Effective too for the trust it has in itself looking at this oeuvre I can’t help feeling the sensation of mining a cornucopia. Surprise is inherent. And a warmth of interest. The train is always on the move. This is a cultural ruminant, who needs following to find new trails.

   Mining the garnered territory of “dead” raw materials – the packaging, magazines, labels, etc., Janet delivers a welter of new visual “sounds”, a personal history of sheer digging -all of which, every time, is new. Personally, I hugely enjoy the attack on what is laughingly known as “normal”, starting with grubbing about with rubbish, editing it carefully and then delivering a near political thrust with “Break Time” (Kit Kat wrappers on mountboard 2002). This work questions the dilute. It involves a scrupulous investment in delivering at once a bodily and intellectual feed. She goes hunting. For wit as much as anything, (Building the Colony 2002). There is plenty of serious play with surfaces too (Shreds of Evidence 2005), which gives the pieces a more 3D feel, as if the work is coming out to meet the viewer, for those who can think with their fingers. This tactility can give many of the pieces extra warmth, again blurring the nomenclatures of particular art practices (Ginza 2009).

   Those who are not in artistic professions can often have defined ideas of how we go about our work. Actually, the activity can be described as some sort of dance with hunger, observation, experiment and feeling. Accidents happen. And they can be the fruit we were seeking. Negatives become positives and I suspect that a lot of Janet’s communication with us depends on this ballet of ability and chance. Sometimes a work almost produces itself- the fruit of years of acute observation and physical habit (Lifeline 2017).

   If I had to be succinct about why there is value here, this is my answer: “When was the last time you felt fiercely empowered to embrace this life, celebrate it and share it with others?”. This work will do that for all of us. For the present time, it would seem that if we want to continue our existence on the planet, we are going to have to radically reimagine a viable future. Infantile politics is plainly killing us, so engaging with artists of this calibre, connected to a kinder way of living, can be one of the central concepts for a road ahead. Art has never been an activity dissociated with its context and many of its practitioners commonly speak a great deal more sense and evince more courage than any political players on the worlds stage. The commitment is deeper and we all have an opportunity now to rebalance our engagement with our surroundings and each other. People have always needed prophets, so I would say we have one here.