The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 18 June – 18 – August 2024
In 2024, Mike Perry wrapped sheeps wool around a wire fence in West Wales to create a fluffy white square set against the backdrop of an empty field. Perry’s ‘square’ mimmicks the wool ‘markings’ left by sheep trying to reach tastier grass on the other side of the fence. But behind this seemingly playful intervention lies a darker narrative, the story of a landscape laid bare by decades of monoculture farming. Lambs may be cuddly and cute, but sheep farming has made Wales one of the most nature depleted countries in Europe. Perry’s framing of this barren landscape quietly alerts us to a lifeless dystopian future.
Among the many artists documenting ecological collapse, Perry’s work is distinct in the hyperlocal and apparently mundane nature of his subjects. Rather than epic, aerial vistas of glaciers or oil fields, Perry directs our attention to the overlooked hedgerow, a shell-incrusted flip-flop or in this case some wool in wire fencing. The drama of these micro-studies are nonetheless global, holding a tension between their aesthetic beauty and the damage inflicted upon nature by human activity.
White Square, 2024 is also being exhibited at
THE WORLD WITHOUT US
At Ffotogallery, Cardiff, 24 May – 10 August 2024
https://www.ffotogallery.org/programme/the-world-without-us
Black Square, 2024 is part of Mike Perry’s solo exhibition
LAND//SEA at The Senedd (Welsh Government) and Pierhead Gallery,
Cardiff June 1st – September 1st 2024