The Spring 2014 Quarterly Newsletter is in!

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LITTLE TRIUMPHS: Winning Best In Show at the Foundry Art Centre

"Se Vende" is Awarded Top Prize and Solo Show in the "Paper Cuts" Exhibit!

Warning: Candid Observations of a Personal Nature Below...

Dear Readers: earlier this Spring, I felt a sudden urgency, as I had never before, to realize my artistic ambitions in a concrete way...oh, I had written the novel, made my art, held a reading here, a signing there, managed not without considerable feet-dragging at last to build a website...but my sporadic efforts quite plainly lacked focus, cohesion...I was keenly aware that for the most part I had dropped the ball these last two years, for a number of reasons, which were ultimately immaterial except for the fact that they had all conspired to distract me from my purpose.  I was left with no other choice than to face my failures and roll up my sleeves...

Going forth, my plan for 2013 centered on two main tasks: 1) to garner reviews for Gibbin House as a lead-in to my next book, and 2) to gain acceptance into art exhibits outside my gallery.

By April, my first task was well underway, and as I continue to work with a host of kind reviewers, I welcome readers to message me here or on my Carola Perla Website with any testimonials they're willing to share!

For the second, I scoured possible gallery and online exhibits.  It was not the easiest thing - my pieces were too large for most, the wrong medium for others.  Moreover, I was desperate to find an exhibit that celebrated paper and sculpture together - I wanted to see my work next to my peers, as a confirmation that I too belonged.  Naturally, when I stumbled across the Foundry Art Centre's Call to Artists for 'Paper Cuts' I instantly regarded it as 'the' event I wanted to join.  Cut-paper exhibits are shockingly rare, and the space seemed so beautiful - I told myself that acceptance here would be the ultimate sign of  accomplishment in the task I had set out for myself. 

By the time the center's response letter arrived in June, I had already placed in another group show and had won an art magazine prize, so I told myself that it wouldn't be the worst thing if I didn't get in.  The envelope was so thin, I reasoned its contents could have no other message for me.  But then it did.

Fast forward three weeks, the short time span I had in which to ship my pieces and arrange my own travel to St. Louis.  As I have confided to my friends, I flew over there with the sensation of never having traveled before, much as I had navigating my way around Tallahassee during college orientation when I was eighteen and away from home for the first time.  It was strange, to be getting dressed for the exhibit opening, as if for the prom, going to see my work in a new space, all grown-up, heading towards this seminal moment which I had awaited with such anticipation, validation of me as an artist...and I was doing it all on my own.  Once again I stood in Anka's shoes, a shy little thing, waiting for the reality of my situation to sink in. 

The space was indeed lovely, a converted train car factory that still had the original steel lifts - in the second world war it had assembled torpedoes - with lots of natural light and high ceilings.  Any worries for the state my pieces might be in (thank you, fedex) immediately subsided as I spied them at the end of the long gallery.  They had been installed with great care and lit with just the right degree of intensity...from here on out, I told myself, I could deem the experience a success.  Being there is all I had wanted, it's all I had worked towards.  I even managed to mingle, to ingratiate myself a little with fellow artists, pose for a picture, not drop my wine.  It was all turning out better than I could have hoped. 

And then they called out my name.  Going Solo Award for "Se Vende" by Carola Perla.  The piece I had done in honor of my family, as a tribute to Casa Marsano, an expression of my love for all things Peru.  The jury could not begin to imagine the deeply personal significance of the house motif or the Spanish poem, its allusions to Chabuca Granda, dust and garua, fairytales and broken dreams...they could not know and yet they thought it deserving.

Now, I know there are exhibits around the country every day, meaning that artists are winnings awards every day, and so I will not let this little triumph go to my head.  There is so much work...SO MUCH WORK ahead of me.  But I will keep the feeling of this first victory in a safe place, to call on when doubt sets in, as it always will.  Because it is a beautiful, necessary thing to work for yourself, to make art that feeds your own soul and gives you a pure purpose...I worked happily in the shroud of anonymity for nearly a decade, as I felt I should.  But every decade or so, it's nice to receive an accolade, a stamp of approval...the community of directors, curators, and artists at the Foundry Art Centre were wonderfully kind and welcoming, and for their support of my artist's journey I thank them...

On to the next one...


For those of you in the St Louis area: please note that the exhibit runs through until September 27, 2013.  It features beautiful work in cut paper as well as book art. 

Here are some photos from the 'Paper Cuts' opening event, which took place June 28th:

Paper Cuts Exhibit at the Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" by Carola Perla at the Foundry Art Centre

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" at Paper Cuts Exhibit

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" paper installations at Foundry Art Centre

"Se Vende" and "Spelling Bee" paper installations by Carola Perla

Winning piece "Se Vende" by Carola Perla

"Spelling Bee" visual poetry paper installation by Carola Perla

Carola Perla and Director Angela Fowle

 

Little Triumphs: Bronze Winner of Art Ascent Magazine's 'Emergence' Art Contest!

I'm so excited to be able to add another 'Little Triumph' to the list, as Art Ascent Magazine just announced that I am the Bronze Winner of their July issue's 'Emergence' art contest!!!

The magazine chose the top 20 artists from among a host of international applicants earlier this May, and will feature the three placing winners in July's print as well as digital online issue, with article and photo spread.  I've been lucky to get a preview of the article and I must say it is a wonderful appraisal of my art's thematic direction and aesthetic aims.  To see more, visit the website and sign up for the magazine's newsletter.
http://artascent.com/emergence-winners-july-2013/

Also, if you're inspired to support my work, sign up for the 'Gibbin House' giveaway at Closed The Cover!  The book review website is conducting the contest, and will award three lucky winners autographed copies of my book! 

GIBBIN HOUSE - BOOK GIVEAWAY by www.closedthecover.com!!!


 

Homage to Casa Marsano: "Se Vende" Visual Poetry Installation by Carola Perla Unveiled

This May 11th, I unveiled my latest visual poetry installation "Se Vende" during ATELIER 1022's 2-Year Anniversary event.

 It was a special evening for me, as it also marked 2 years since the launch of Gibbin House.

How strange, I kept thinking to myself as I stood posing for photos, that a work I had once lived with behind closed doors for nearly nine years was no longer a private thing, indeed for two years already it had aged, shaken out its skirts and petticoats in the public eye, gotten all adult on me like a teenager graduating college.  It gives you that feeling of "when did I get so old?".  And yet, I also felt relieved.  Relieved, realizing that two years into the completion of Gibbin House, the reason for its existence, the need to exorcise and 'verarbeiten' (as the Germans say) which drove me to write it in the first place, remained the same force behind my work today.

I realized that, although I had never admitted it to myself as I tinkered away at my novel, I was afraid of finishing the book and having nothing left to say.  Perhaps it's why I worked on it for so many years...but looking at the emotional investment in "Se Vende", I knew that wasn't the case.  One way or another I have found projects to express my world views. I have looked for ways to lay things bare, expose ironies and elevate beauties, as an artist ought.  "Se Vende" is probably most emblematic of this impetus - it addresses the sudden and controversial tearing down of Casa Marsano, a known Lima landmark from 1941-2002 and a house that holds a special place in the history of my family.  The building, which was far from dilapidated, could not be saved because it was deemed by authorities to hold no cultural or architectural value (when I see photos of Ocean Drive from the 40's and the row of Art Deco palaces that used to stud that street, I am reminded that Casa Marsano is not the only house to have been so disregarded.)  Judging by the websites, articles, and blogs dedicated posthumously to Casa Marsano, it's clear that the landmark was not only significant to my relatives, but to a city at large.  It's destruction begs the question of what we value in ourselves when we destroy the monuments to beauty that promised such permanence, such continuation.  The poem in "Se Vende" does this by repeating 'for sale' and using cultural references to ask how far we go in selling our patrimony.  The accompanying voice recording of me reading the poem add to the echo effect.

I'm proud of this piece, this examination of a house, my second 'house' as it were:) From Gibbin House to Casa Marsano, I will continue to strive for authenticity and illuminating expression.  Here is to another two years...

And thank you to the Miami SunPost for the great write-up in anticipation of the unveiling.  Follow the link here to read the article in full: http://miamisunpost.com/art-visual-poet-carola-perla/

"Se Vende" - Carola Perla's Latest Illuminated Paper Art Installation Set To Be Unveiled In Just Three Weeks!!!

...in anticipation, let me share the 'official' release on this new unveiling. It offers some insight into my themes and process. Hope it's of some interest!

Introducing Visual Poet Carola Perla

Miami Author Highlights Transience and Transculturation

in Illuminated Paper Sculptures

 

ATELIER 1022 Studio and Fine Art Gallery introduces resident ‘paper sculptor and visual linguist’, artist Carola Perla, whose latest visual poetry installation "Se Vende" is set to be unveiled at ATELIER 1022's 2nd Anniversary Exhibit - "Perla Projekt 2.0" - on May 11th, 2013.  The young German-Peruvian author launched her literary fiction novel "Gibbin House" at the opening of ATELIER 1022 in May 2011, and has in the ensuing two years expanded on her published prose with an impressive collection of floor-to-ceiling visual poetry 'illuminations' that explore transience, permanence, and transculturation through cut paper, light, graphite drawings, and autobiographical source material. 

 

Carola Perla's soon-to-be unveiled "Se Vende" integrates all these elements and introduces as its autobiographical component the real-life demolition of Casa Marsano, an ancestral estate and Lima landmark.  A graphite representation of this site emerges from behind a carved wall-sized 'chant' poem that uses the Spanish 'For Sale' expression (Se Vende) as its central 'word motif'.  In "Se Vende", the poem invokes Limean history and folk references, their melancholy devaluation mirrored by the ever-crumbling letters and the building's spectral silhouette which hovers amid fine incisions.  Back lighting and the artist's recorded voice performance of the poem add multi-sensory resonance.

 

The artist has dubbed her poems 'chants' because they evolve from a word or phrase on which she must meditate during the process of cutting each letter freehand.  The perpetual incantation organically inspires the sound or image of the next, the motif functioning as both a visual and musical building block that slowly draws in other elements.  Since such poems depend on the immediacy of the physical creation, they are composed entirely in the moment.  Each piece, despite its graphic precision, is therefore an absolute and spontaneous original. 

 

"I see my paper installations as room-sized conversations - visual echoes of my personal fascination with displacement and the way language shapes identity, having spent much of my early childhood traveling across borders, from Romania to Peru to Germany to Miami all before the age of ten," explains the artist.

 

"The search for 'home' and 'voice' is what drives both my personal and aesthetic decisions.  It led me to write about exile in Gibbin House and to create a mute protagonist.  However, living in Miami, which is this very transient, multi-lingual city, is a daily reminder that the struggle for 'home' and 'voice' is not my own, but universal.  My hope is that the visual impact of these sculptures, coupled with the familiarity of at least one of the languages I use in my poems extends that same reaffirmation to others."

 

In addition to her poetry chants, Carola features in her pieces excerpts from her novel Gibbin House, as in "Off the Page", the first of the artist's cut-paper sculptures born out of her wish to transcend the inherently hermetic nature of the writing process.  The installation, which debuted during Art Basel Miami 2011 to public acclaim, was comprised of the material culture amassed over a nine-year writing odyssey, and punctuated by the last page of the book - a cascading blanket of white paper, carved delicately with letters dangling off the page.  Imbued with movement and aglow with diffused light, these floating letters translated the extemporaneous vibrancy of language and became for the artist an ethereal manifestation of the spoken word.  "The ephemeral quality of paper adds to the effect with its frailty," says Carola, "yet the irreversible act of cutting reinforces the permanent nature of words.  As words cannot be unsaid, so a paper cut is the ultimate in commitment.  The possibilities seemed endless." 

 

Indeed, the potential for this art form sparked the series of transience- and transculturation-themed works that round out the collection currently on display at ATELIER 1022: "Spelling Bee", a whimsical floor-to-ceiling visual poem in four languages that traces a young girl's linguistic journey across continents; the German-language "Illegible", incorporating a graphite portrait and the original poetry 'chant' that addresses identity through language; as well as the small-scale "A-Mended Conversation" cut from Mexican amate bark and embroidered with printed text from the Gibbin House manuscript, the medium's traditional uses highlighting gender and class roles as defined by the novel's fictional characters.