Artist statement
Alex Pearl makes mini epic films, video installations, sculpture and books. Throughout his work there is a sense of an acceptance of failure or disappointment as important parts of the human condition. Using readily available materials and software the films are made from: suddenly apprehended ideas, discovered objects and impromptu processes. They are comparable with the sketch or doodle, an initial throwaway idea made visible. They make light with big issues and are in turn haunting and funny.
His sculpture is fragile, temporary and has the appearance of being on the verge of collapse or already broken. The work displays playfulness with its own limitations and a hopeless desire for greatness.
There is an openness in his practice. Works are freely available online and are often submitted to the harsh criticism of the YouTube and blogging communities where pieces are often reworked under the public gaze.
Alex Pearl creates situations, which illustrate our predicament. His short videos have the improvisational nature of the sketch. They revolve around the fate of simple creatures conjured from lollipop sticks or ping-pong balls. These creatures are set in motion through primitive actions and machines, and filmed whilst left to their fate. This fate is, of course, dictated by gravitational and other forces, plus a great deal of chance. The power of these understated and subtle films belie their impoverished roots.
(Kate McFarlane, Drawing Links Catalogue, 2006)
Almost every aspect of this film is almost nothing, and yet that is why it is so haunting and so memorable. It feels like an empty dream.
(Lynda Morris, excerpt from Drawing Links Catalogue, 2006)
Solo exhibitions
- 2010 I was continuing to shrink, to become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? O, CoExist Galleries @TAP, Southend (more info)
- 2009 Goodbye to most of the daydreams, Artspace 1 ICIA University of Bath, Bath (more info)
- 2009 Goodbye to most of the daydreams, BCA Gallery, Bedford (more info)
- 2008 Persistence of Vision, Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester (more info)
- 2008 Little Deaths, The Salt Gallery, Hayle (more info)
- 2006 Explore, Aspex Gallery Offsite, Southsea
- 2006 Automatic Filmmaking Residency, Sideshow, Nottingham (more info)
Group exhibitions
- 2011 Pulp Fictions, Transition Gallery, London (more info)
- 2011 The Man Who Fell to Earth, Jens Hills, London (more info)
- 2011 The Count of Monte Cristo (Island of True Stories), Phoenix Gallery, Exeter (more info)
- 2010 Artsway Open 2010, Artsway, Sway (more info)
- 2010 Unspooling- Artists and Cinema, The Cornerhouse, Manchester (more info)
- 2010 Artside, Artside, Southend (more info)
- 2010 Meleager's Garland, Sir Joseph Banks Conservatory, Lincoln (more info)
- 2010 Cosmic Mysteries, Gallery Espacio, Valencia (more info)
- 2010 Cosmic Mysteries, London Art Fair, London (more info)
- 2010 Quiet Voices, Tate Britain, London (more info)
- 2009 The Logos is Common, The Great Central, Leicester (more info)
- 2009 Trying to Cope with Things that aren't Human (Part One), Cell Project Space, London (more info)
- 2009 UAMO - Perforation, Kunstarkaden, Muenchen, Munich (more info)
- 2009 Trying to Cope with Things that aren't Human (Part One), David Cunningham Projects & Airspace, San Francisco & Stoke on Trent (more info)
- 2009 Wysing Arts Contemporary- Animated, Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn (more info)
- 2008 Outpost members show, Outpost, Norwich (more info)
- 2008 Reading Experimental Film Festival, Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading (more info)
- 2008 Open Show 2008, Surface Gallery, Nottingham (more info)
- 2008 Studio Voltaire Annual Members' Exhibition, Studio Voltaire, London (more info)
- 2008 To the Pleasure Garden, Tatton Park Biennial, Tatton Park, Manchester
- 2008 There & Then, Airspace, Stoke on Trent (more info)
- 2008 Cheap Like Wow, UAMO Festival, Munich
- 2007 Vane Shorts 2, Vane, Newcastle (more info)
- 2007 Intermix, Pavilion, Leeds (more info)
- 2007 RSVP contemporary artists at the Foundling Museum, The Foundling Museum, London (more info)
- 2007 Time Based Media Exhibition, Artspace, North Carolina, Raleigh (more info)
- 2007 Demolition, Site, Liverpool (more info)
- 2007 Joking Aside, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Bury St Edmunds (more info)
- 2007 Black Light, Colony, Birmingham
- 2007 700IS Experimental Film & Video Festival, Culture Centre of Fljotsdalsherad, Egilsstadir
- 2007 Edge, King's Lynn Arts Centre, King's Lynn
- 2007 Experimenta, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai & Bangalore, India (more info)
- 2007 Fresh, South Hill Park, Bracknell
- 2006 PureScreen #16: Beta Test, Bureau & Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (more info)
- 2006 The Hun Gallery International 2006, The Hun Gallery, New York, USA
- 2006 within and without, TULCA arts festival, Galway (more info)
- 2006 The Vending Machine Project, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
- 2006 The Moving Picture Show, BCA Gallery, Bedford
- 2006 Parkgewusel Short Film & video Festival, MACHFELD, international Arts and Culture Society, Vienna, Austria
- 2006 Darklight Festival, Irish Film Institute, Dublin
- 2006 Izolenta 06, International Digital Film Festival, Museum of Cinema, St Petersburg
- 2006 PixelDance II Video Art Festival, Studio Koitwnes Ex Military Area, Thessaloniki, Greece
- 2006 Drawing Links, The Drawing Room, London
- 2006 Indisposable, Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich
- 2006 60 Seconds of Play, Drain Magazine, Salt Works Gallery & Forum Gallery, Atlanta, USA
- 2006 D>Art 06 Video festival, dlux Media Arts, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
- 2006 37 Seconds, BBC Big Screen, Liverpool
- 2006 Streaming Festival (the Hague), Syntocin, The Netherlands
- 2005 Trampoline, Reactor, Nottingham
- 2005 LAlternativa 2005, 12th Independent Film Festival of Barcelona, Centre de Cultura Contempornia de Barcelona, Barcelona
- 2005 Extra Short Film Festival, Novosibirsk, Russia
Live/Performance
- 2008 From the Picturesque to the Demolished, The Railway Tavern Hotel, London (more info)
Residencies
- 2010 Pearlville, Islington Mill, Salford and Manchester (more info)
- 2008 'Goodbye to most of the day-dreams', BCA Gallery Bedford, Bedford (more info)
- 2005 Automatic Filmmaking Residency, Regeneration, St Mary @ the Quay, Ipswich
Other
- 2010 Whitstable Biennale, Whitstable (more info)
- 2009 One Minute Volume 3, Various, London (more info)
- 2008 Refutation, Fandango, Cross st, Islington, London (more info)
- 2008 Beyond Film Festival, Durham City Vision, Durham (more info)
- 2008 Sizemology, BBC Big Screen, Liverpool (more info)
- 2008 Purescreen DVD *02 Launch Event, Roxy Bar & Screen, London (more info)
- 2007 Anotherroadsideattraction, another roadside attraction, The Griffin, Shoreditch, London (more info)
- 2007 Streaming Festival (more info)
- 2007 One Minute Film & Video Festival, Kino Frei Er Film Aarau, Aarau (more info)
- 2007 Digifestival.net 2007, digifestival.net, Florence (more info)
Personal website
