Anna Perach explores the dynamics between personal and cultural myths. Her work engages with historical narratives through the depiction of enigmatic female characters that dwell precariously at the threshold between states: inside and outside of their bodies. With diverse references including fairy tales and psychoanalytic theory, and using archaic textile processes such as tufting, she transforms female archetypes into sculptural hybrids that explore ideas of identity, gender, and craft.
For her first institutional solo exhibition in the UK, Perach has produced a new body of work based on the concept of the monstrous feminine, and the transformation of the body as a metaphor for cerebral and spiritual exploration.
Comprising large-scale sculptural forms and installation, Holes is inspired by instances where the female body is viewed by a religious or scientific patriarchal authority as something that transgresses the rules of morality and nature. These instances include witch trials from the renaissance period, 17th Century anatomical Venus sculptures designed for disassembly and exploration of the feminine interior; and the work of 19th century neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot who treated women diagnosed with hysteria. Richly detailed and layered, the sculptures confound conventional expectations, with stretched limbs, engorged features and distorted faces.
Holes creates a site of rebirth, where non-conforming and subjugated bodies take control, revelling in the alluring yet monstrous and pushing beyond conventional understandings of flesh and skin.
Anna’s new performance series, Ecstasies accompanies the exhibition.
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