Pronounced Á-Nem-Oy | Aaron Perkins

Pronounced á-nem-oy | Aaron Perkins

2 June - 20 June 2021

Jan Manton Gallery is pleased to present Aaron Perkins in his latest exhibition Pronounced á-nem-oy, exhibiting from 2-20 June 2021. Perkins writes:

To sail is to read the wind. However, despite a recent residency atop the Maroochy Sailing Club on Chambers Island, I have no experience on rafts, yachts, catamarans or any other masted what-nots. The points of sail are unintelligible to me and my movements over the water are illiterate.

Despite this inexperience, in Pronounced á-nem-oy Perkins nevertheless attempts to harness the wind to continue his exploration of language through abstraction. In a suite of paintings, works on paper, and video that hitch the literature of Ancient Greece to the telegraphic system of flag semaphore, Perkins orients himself within space and language, likening seeds blown by the wind to units of speech, and playfully exploring the evolution of language — albeit sometimes along failed routes…

In the catalogue essay by Jude Anderson, Perkins’ skill as an “Anemoi Purveyor” – that is, as someone promoting the wind – is said to lay in “his deliberate, deeply considered visual techniques, and his delight in offering the ancient languages of winds and sailing to speak playfully with us”. This we recognise and extend as an invitation to all to join us in Perkins’ play at Jan Manton Gallery.

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