4 questions, with Oliver Perkins
Oliver Perkins, Pots (4), ink, acrylic, and size on canvas, 50 x 50 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett. Photo: Sam Hartnett
Oliver Perkins’ dog, Pedro
Victoria Wynne-Jones: Daily walks seem to be playing a big part in lots of peoples lives at the moment, especially up here in Tāmaki. Have you been walking much lately? What kind of terrain do you cover?
Oliver Perkins: We are lucky to have lots of great tracks around us in Lyttelton with views of Whakaraupō and the east coast beaches. We have a new member of the family called Pedro, a border terrier pup so we walk him twice a day. He’s slowly building up his stamina for a decent hike.
Many of us continue to work from home. Do you paint at home or in a studio, is there much of a commute? Even if it’s just a few steps. How do you make the transition from home to studio?
Since leaving London, where I had a studio in a complex with other artists, all my studios have been at home. Both in Spain and here, with the exception of the incredible studio at Parehuia McCahon House, they have either been a room in the apartment or a garage. To work from home is mostly out of necessity but has been so important during lockdowns. My current studio is purpose built and separate from the house which allows me the illusion of detachment and for it to have its own atmosphere.
I often feel quite refreshed by this time of the year, with all the spring growth, something shifts in the air. Does the shift in season affect your making?
I do enjoy this time of year. Lockdowns have dominated seasons in my division of time recently but the buoyancy of Spring is hard to beat.
There is such a sense of cheerfulness in your paintings, a unique mix of playfulness, enjoyment as well as a curiosity with the very structures of painting (stretchers, canvas etc). What drives or sustains this curiosity?
This answer could be very long winded or I could flip the question and suggest that the curiosity sustains the engagement. Part experimental, part analytical, I’m invested in painting’s openness as an object, it’s relationship to architecture as subject and site. To talk to cheerfulness, it is enjoyable to be engaged in the process and there is something in the reveal of a painting that I find joyful.
Oliver Perkins, Casting a crisis, painting a cat, looking out a window. Installation view, Michael Lett, September 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett. Photo: Sam Hartnett
Oliver Perkins is one of 25 artists participating in Michael Lett’s TENT presentation, 4–7 November, 2021, an initiative by the Aotearoa Art Fair. Learn more here.