Alex Pearl creates mini epic films, video installations, games, photographs, objects, blogs and books. Much of Pearl’s work moves toward the structures and images of Science Fiction, the idea of the artist as evil-genius or crackpot-scientist always lurks in the background.
Influenced by “Kaiju” movies which are archetype in Japanese contemporary hybrid culture, echoing attitudes and concerns of the present day as well as providing a link to the past. Typical of this genre is that the strange beasts are either conventional animals, insects or mythological creatures, scaled-up to colossal proportions. Pearl’s sculptures are characters from “The Tower of Terror” part of his recent solo show Mothra vs. Godzilla at Canal, London. Named after a famous Japanese monster movie in which there is a fight between a big female moth and a gigantic male lizard. The exhibition featured a number of impossibly huge creatures playing with passenger jets. A recurring theme of these “Kaiju” films is that whilst the monsters fight, civilization is adjourned until the battles are concluded. The ceramics themselves were gleaned from a neighbouring derelict house. Its owner, recently deceased, left a lifetime of unwanted objects, the significance of which is unknown.
Over the past decade Alex Pearl has built an esteemed reputation as a multi-disciplinary artist. His works and films are shown throughout the UK and Europe. He was commissioned to create The Pearl Fisher, for the 2010 Whitstable Biennale. 2012 saw The Incredible Shrinking Man, Temporary Art Projects, Southend; Let’s Go!, Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton and Goodbye to most of the Daydreams, ICIA, University of Bath. Followed by Mothra vs Godzilla, Canal, London, in 2014. Group exhibitions include News From Nowhere, Kelmscott House, London and Now the Dream is over and the insect is awake, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London and Beyond Belonging, 12th GOEAST – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, Wiesbaden, Germany. Pearl lives and works in Ipswich. He is also based at Manchester Metropolitan University and FACT, Liverpool, studying for a PhD that looks at a New Materialist examining mechanical breakdown and anthropomorphism.
Influenced by “Kaiju” movies which are archetype in Japanese contemporary hybrid culture, echoing attitudes and concerns of the present day as well as providing a link to the past. Typical of this genre is that the strange beasts are either conventional animals, insects or mythological creatures, scaled-up to colossal proportions. Pearl’s sculptures are characters from “The Tower of Terror” part of his recent solo show Mothra vs. Godzilla at Canal, London. Named after a famous Japanese monster movie in which there is a fight between a big female moth and a gigantic male lizard. The exhibition featured a number of impossibly huge creatures playing with passenger jets. A recurring theme of these “Kaiju” films is that whilst the monsters fight, civilization is adjourned until the battles are concluded. The ceramics themselves were gleaned from a neighbouring derelict house. Its owner, recently deceased, left a lifetime of unwanted objects, the significance of which is unknown.
Over the past decade Alex Pearl has built an esteemed reputation as a multi-disciplinary artist. His works and films are shown throughout the UK and Europe. He was commissioned to create The Pearl Fisher, for the 2010 Whitstable Biennale. 2012 saw The Incredible Shrinking Man, Temporary Art Projects, Southend; Let’s Go!, Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton and Goodbye to most of the Daydreams, ICIA, University of Bath. Followed by Mothra vs Godzilla, Canal, London, in 2014. Group exhibitions include News From Nowhere, Kelmscott House, London and Now the Dream is over and the insect is awake, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London and Beyond Belonging, 12th GOEAST – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, Wiesbaden, Germany. Pearl lives and works in Ipswich. He is also based at Manchester Metropolitan University and FACT, Liverpool, studying for a PhD that looks at a New Materialist examining mechanical breakdown and anthropomorphism.
©Alex Pearl and Renée Pfister, 2015
For further information about Alex Pearl's work contact
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