Pronounced á-nem-oy
AARON PERKINS 2 - 20 June, 2021
Aaron Perkins: a ‘Skillful Anemoi Purveyor’ Aaron’s work for this exhibition arose from a residency on Kabi Kabi Country atop the Maroochy Sailing Club on Chambers Island. I live and work in Central Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Aaron and I had never met but over Aaron’s residency period we had a number of on-line conversations. The common ground we shared was a delight in play and playfulness with language and creating in the realms of the absurd. Where Aaron experiments with languages I experiment in live performance. Aaron will suggest I was something of ‘a rudder’, steering him toward new territories – it’s why he’s invited me to share my thoughts with you – but Aaron was already on a new tack, I just held the tiller for a moment while he sniffed the wind. Let’s just say that for this exhibition, Aaron, like Homer’s Odysseus, is a return adventurer who, vested only with the language of winds, sails, and semaphore signs, seeks to share his island residency odyssey with others – while purveying the art of it. Like Aaron, Let’s Play With Language! I type ‘Anemoi winds’ into an online AI Slogan Generator. It suggests I could describe Aaron as a ‘Skillful Anemoi Purveyor’. To be honest, I couldn’t have found a more apt expression. Even a day blissfully lulled by the tack and jibe manoeuvres of Maroochy Sailing Club yachts wouldn’t have found me a better phrase. Aaron’s skill as an ‘Anemoi Purveyor’ lies in his deliberate, deeply considered visual techniques, and his delight in offering the ancient languages of wind and sailing to speak playfully with us and invite us into his play. Anemoi – Greek for the four cardinal winds of the compass. Tack – using the wind to change course to take a new direction.
Jibe – 1. turning the stern of the boat through the wind to change the wind from one side of the boat to the other. Mind you duck that ‘boom’! Jibe – 2. A mocking remark. Aaron doesn’t jeer, he prefers to laugh at himself and the crazy slippage of all sorts of signs and visual languages used to communicate. As a painter he is at the same time a ‘word nerd’ and a ‘language sceptic’. Anemoi – First Class! Anemoi – Winds That Get You Where You’re Going In his first week at the residency studio Aaron found an old howto-sail book: Scientific Sailboat Racing (1968). With ultramarine gouache he used a stylised semaphore language of flag triangles to ‘write’ the names of the Ancient Greek mythology’s wind gods: the Anemoi. This led to a first-class exchange on our shared sense of inadequacy in the face of languages and sailing systems.I once helmed a Heron (a very small single-hulled sailing dinghy) that set off the winning line guns of a national Sailboat championship. I was not sailing in the race. I was following the wind, not the rules. In the context, I was a national embarrassment – but perhaps a good sailor. Can You Tell Anemoi Wind From Butter? Sure I can. I Never Eat Soggy Weet-Bix and prefer unsalted butter on hot toast. If You Can’t Beat Anemoi Winds, Join Anemoi Winds Run with the tides and winds of instinct and impulses. (Here’s a secret: Aaron’s Collective Invention (after Magritte) came about through my suggesting he use semaphore flags to
instruct the tacking and jibing of a Maroochy Club sailor, even though he doesn’t know semaphore language. Aaron said that him communicating from the shoreline in semaphore would be as ridiculous as an advertising tall-tube-man-fly-guy flapping about. I found that a really great idea. (I’ve only ever seen Aaron on Zoom and, even then, just his head and shoulders, but his hair expressed a life lived in epic prevailing island winds.) We then spoke about reflective ‘fish scales’ used on advertising billboards. He then thought of Magritte’s take on a mermaid. Aaron then found a tall-tube-manfly-guy in a similar ultramarine to that he uses for all his other works in the exhibition. Like a good sailor, he sniffed a wind of possibility, ran with it, and started planning.) Anemoi Winds – Enjoy When No-one’s Around Anemoi Winds, Your Way! This could be the slogan for Aaron’s residency. It is what his residency offered – more than a studio away from distractions, it was a place of unknowingness that sharpened his instincts and intensified his practice. It produced a new visual language and play through which he proposes a dialogue in which we can all delight. N. E. S. W. Never Eat Soggy Weet-Bix Further slogans generated by the AI Slogan Generator from ‘Anemoi winds’. These are for you to respond to once you’ve had fun tacking and jibing with Aaron’s exhibition. Warm Like Rainforests And Fabulous Rooflines Shampoo For The Hair And Scalp Sunscreen, Eyes Never Forget It’s That Simple. Jude Anderson – April 10, 2021
A (N E M O I), 2021 Gouache on page 7 of Jürgen and Manfred Charculla’s Windsurfing for Experts (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1981) 25.4 x 19.2 cm
(A) N (E M O I), 2021 Gouache on page 31 of Jürgen and Manfred Charculla’s Windsurfing for Experts (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1981) 25.4 x 19.2 cm
$220
$220
(A N) E (M O I), 2021 Gouache on page 44 of Jürgen and Manfred Charculla’s Windsurfing for Experts (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1981) 25.4 x 19.2 cm
(A N E) M (O I), 2021 Gouache on page 56 of Jürgen and Manfred Charculla’s Windsurfing for Experts (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1981) 25.4 x 19.2 cm
$220
$220
(A N E M) O (I), 2021 Gouache on page 140 of Jürgen and Manfred Charculla’s Windsurfing for Experts (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1981) 25.4 x 19.2 cm
(A N E M O) I, 2021 Gouache on page 141 of Jürgen and Manfred Charculla’s Windsurfing for Experts (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1981) 25.4 x 19.2 cm
$220
$220
Eat (from Weet-Bix), 2021 Acrylic on polyester 45.7 x 45.7 cm
Never (from Soggy), 2021 Acrylic on polyester 45.7 x 45.7 cm
$880
$880
Soggy (from Never), 2021 Acrylic on polyester 45.7 x 45.7 cm
Weet-Bix (from Eat), 2021 Acrylic on polyester 45.7 x 45.7 cm
$880
$880
Front
Verso Phonemes #01, 2021 Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support 147 x 142 cm $3800
Front
Verso Phonemes #19, 2021 Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support 147 x 142 cm $3800
Front
Verso Phonemes #26, 2021 Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support 147 x 142 cm $3800
Front
Verso Phonemes #34, 2021 Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support 147 x 142 cm $3800
Front
Verso Phonemes #37, 2021 Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support 147 x 142 cm $3800
Front
Verso Phonemes #41, 2021 Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support 147 x 142 cm $3800
Front
Verso Phonemes #68, 2021 Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support 147 x 142 cm $3800
Collective Invention (after Magritte), 2021 Video, 10:35. Videographer: Cody Wood. POA
Gallery Director: Jan Manton
54 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe QLD 4005 info@janmantonart.com janmantonart.com All artwork images by Carl Warner. Courtesy of the artist.
Gallery Manager: Taylor Hall Front and back cover (artwork verso on back): Aaron Perkins, Phonemes #41, 2021, Acrylic on canvas with Tasmanian Oak support, 149 x 149 cm Page 3: Aaron Perkins, still from Collective Invention (after Magritte), 2021 Video shot by Cody Wood, 10:35. Page 17: Aaron Perkins, (A) N (E M O I), 2021, Gouache on page 31 of Jürgen and Manfred Charculla’s Wind-surfing for Experts (London: Evans Brothers Limited, 1981), 25.4 x 19.2 cm