Pat Perry – “Which World” @ Hashimoto Contemporary [Los Angeles]

“Which World”
acrylic on panel
48 x 61 in / 49 x 62 in framed

The press release for the upcoming solo exhibition by Detroit-based artist, Pat Perry, explains that it “is comprised of new paintings that highlight the understated quotidian moments, refracting ordinary details into uncanny or magical subjects.” Adding that by “culling images from memory and crowd-sourced archives like Craigslist or YouTube, Perry’s visual anthology prompts us to consider which world we choose to live in based on which images we acknowledge and which we ignore.” It goes on to get into detail and actually does a fairly commendable job of breaking down the general contents and contexts of his show. That said, while artist statements may serve their purpose — and this one does more than most — I’ve never been that big of a fan of them in general. The more guidance about what or how I should be experiencing or relating to the art, the less appealing it all becomes. I can acknowledge that information about the artist’s process and perspectives can be fascinating, but the thing that immediately drew me into Pat Perry‘s latest work had much less of a cerebral nature to it. I simply saw the image of his painting “Which World” [posted above] and I felt something.

As shameless and corny as it may be, the first thought that came to me when I saw images from the new show was actually a quote from myself, of all people. I don’t really fuck with Facebook these days, but a couple of months ago, I visited that angry, lifeless, quasi-political ghost town; dipping in like a secret ops mission to retrieve a website link and slip out undetected. When I logged in, Facebook presented me with a 10-year-old “memory” of someone else’s post that I was tagged in. In it, they quoted and reposted a comment that I must have made under a different one of their other posts. This is what it said:

“No matter how weird your life is or uncomfortable, there is something about right now that you will miss someday. Even in the worst times of my life, there is something that I still miss… sometimes it’s just a feeling of a neighborhood that I’d cut through, or the smell of some place, or even a mundane action that you do every day at the job you hate. Right now something really essential to your identity and nostalgia is taking place.“

It’s interesting to see something that you said and you never would have otherwise remembered, but fitting considering that the sentiment is about the feelings and moments that slip past without ever recognizing or acknowledging their importance. This was a throwaway comment, a thought that I had in the moment, but it resonates with me now as it must have with the person who felt compelled to quote it. Why wouldn’t it? I’m the one who said it and, most likely, said it because I needed to hear it myself. Meanwhile, I clack away at this laptop trying to think of something effective, if not profound, and never come as close as I will with the shit that spills out of my skull on accident. Sure, the wording is a little clunky and the obsessive part of me wants to edit a Facebook comment from a decade ago, but for me, it’s a reminder that our subconscious selves are often much more perceptive and aware than our “intellectual” minds. There is beauty and truth and life floating all around us, but so much of it goes unrecognized. It’s good to know that some of it is being passively absorbed by us, whether we realize it or not.

I could ramble on endlessly about concepts of time and our relationship to it, but one of the most interesting things to me always had to do with timelines I would see as a kid and the way those little dots would be marked along them as “milestones” and “important” events. This implies that the space between them is insignificant when in reality, that space leading up to a wedding, birthday, championship, or whatever event is being recorded is where life actually exists. As Westerners, we generally seem to be focusing on the next dot/event/marker and waiting for it to arrive, or living with our minds focused on and/or recovering from bygone events like the corporeal embodiment of trauma residue. In other words, we tend to exist in the past and identify ourselves by what’s already occurred, or we are simply preparing for whatever we expect to arrive in the future. Far too rarely, and hardly ever fully, do we experience the present.

BUT… like I said, I could ramble on forever.

If you simply view the painting “Which World” with its gentle sunlight laid across these homes, the blankets of soft snow in the foreground, and the cool blue sky, you can feel all of it. The chill snow, the gentle warmness of the day. The scene becomes even more interesting once you zoom in to see a girl in wide pants with a wallet chain holding a banner with a mysterious message, and her hooded companion kneeling in the snow with a crossbow; — a large, framed painting of Jesus sits propped up between them. What I love about it is how an otherwise insignificant moment like this, when frozen, reveals itself to be endlessly fascinating, not only for what it implies will happen, but simply for what it is. Is she going to hang that banner and what does it say? Will the arrow hit the target? Does it even matter? What I love the most is that the characters, while providing greater dimension to the piece, are almost secondary to the environment itself. Perry had me with the house and sunlight before I even noticed them.

Another painting titled, “Recreating,” features a trio of Amish girls outside of a church building. Again, it’s the emotion of the scene and the familiarity in the imagery that makes the viewer confident that they understand this place and its energy; that they’ve been to or at least seen a place just like this before. There’s an instant connection here. We understand it. Upon closer inspection, the women are wearing rollerblades. Just like in the other piece, there are subjects looking back at the viewer knowing they are being documented. One would imagine they don’t understand their own significance in these moments, while the one documenting them recognizes it more than the participants.

I’ve been guilty of expressing my infatuation with the romantic nature of corner store neon and the glow of streetlamps at night. Perry‘s new exhibition features a series of images with fireworks being lit and taps into something similar. He paints unplugged light-up plastic lawn displays that include figures from a nativity scene, the easter bunny, and a cow. Train cars. Barren trees. Dusk. Crisp air. Reflections in a still pond. Whether the moments captured in these paintings point to the anticipation of something about to happen, highlight once important items being abandoned after they’re deemed to have outlived their usefulness, or even when it’s just an image of a graveyard, every piece alludes to life and humanity. Some artists paint technically sound yet sterile still life work and some work hard to present a really bold and “important” message. Some just want to create something that’s visually appealing or looks really fucking cool. With Which World, Perry seems more focused on capturing the essence of existence itself and, with everything going on in the world, it’s not only incredibly pleasant but imperative, that we are reminded that at the core of it/us all resides a striking level of beauty, even in the “mundane.”

Which World opens this Saturday, October 14th at Hashimoto Conteporary‘s Los Angeles gallery.

Check out the preview images for the exhibition below the following event details…