Julian Perry (born 1960) paints images of genuine topicality in an immaculate high-definition realist style.
Julian Perry (born 1960) paints images of genuine topicality in an immaculate high-definition realist style. His last show in 2007 dealt with the allotment sheds bulldozed by the relentless encroachment of the Olympic site. Since then he has been painting pictures of coastal erosion, visiting locations around England and composing hallucinatory images of deracination and loss.
‘Clifftop with Fridge Freezers’ was one of the first of the new series. I asked him to describe the subject. ‘It depicts a dairy that has fallen victim to what I think is called “rotational slump”, when alluvial till, or glacial till, which is basically mud, slides away down a cliff at 45 degrees and just rips any buildings on top of it apart,’ says Perry cheerfully. ‘We’re looking at the roof trusses of a barn and the abandoned fridge freezers halfway down the side of a cliff. It’s a bit like a battlefield. I thought that I was going to explore the destructive aspect of coastal erosion and that the images were going to have this post-Apocalyptic quality, whereas ultimately what I’ve done is try to create images that are paradoxically about preserving the subjects in the painting.
‘When you arrive at a site of coastal erosion, nine times out of ten it’s been completely tidied up. There’s very little to see.’ Isn’t it then perverse to make paintings of the subject? ‘I rather modestly think that I came up with an angle on it that creates a very strong visual response by mixing up the time periods of before and after. When you arrive at these places there might not be a lot to see – a bit of debris at the bottom of a cliff – but what everyone thinks is “a bungalow used to be in that space.”’
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in