PROFILE
Sumi Perera’s artist books (SuperPress) are an amalgam of influences of her work in the East (Sri Lanka, her native country), and the West (the United Kingdom, her adoptive country) as a doctor, scientist and artist. A graduate of the MA Bookarts from Camberwell College, University of the Arts, London, her work oscillates between the vertical and the horizontal planes liberating glazed wall hung artwork to a publicly accessible space to be handled and touched.
She was awarded the 1st Prize/Gold medal at the International Bookarts Competition in Seoul, Korea in 2005; the Birgit Skiold Award for excellence in Book Arts at the LAB ’05 (London Artist Bookfair) at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) London; and the 1st prize-the Herman Melville Charitable Trust Award in Boston, Masssachusetts at SHELTER a touring exhibition in the USA [2008-2009]; and a prize in the Kaleidoscope Hoffman Challenge at the National Quilt Championships 2001.
She exhibits internationally and has work held in the Tate Britain, Victoria & Albert Museum, Yale Centre for British Art, printROOM at Rotterdam, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Grafisk Vaerksted-Naestaved, Denmark, Guanlan Museum in China and the Sakima Art Museum, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. She has participated in the 5th International Columbia Book & Paper Arts Triennial, Columbia College Chicago; 28th Mini Print International of Cadaque. Girona, Spain; International Print Exhibition, Yunnan, China; 6th British International Miniature Print Exhibition, UK; BIMPE IV-The Fourth Biennial International Miniature Print Exhibition in Canada; art of the STITCH 2006, an International Biennial Exhibition; the Wrexham Print International 2008; ORIGINALS ’08 at the Mall Galleries, London; and had solo shows at the Arnolfini Bookshop showcase in Bristol and Spread the Word Headquarters, London.
She has curated an exhibition: 15 to 1 [a touring show] at the Bristol School of Art & Design, University of West England, which features work by Chinese artists from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing where she taught an artist book module.
The content of the books are often semi-autobiographical, combining traditional and digital printmaking techniques using photography, stitch and laser techniques as reference points to transform unique artwork into democratic multiples. Slight variations on the theme are used to generate ‘unique multiples’, whilst blurring boundaries between the artist/artisan, orient/occident and the past and present. Process is as important as the ‘finished’ article, often instructing the viewer/reader to intervene, allowing the editorial control and authorship to be shared. The artwork often escapes the white-cube gallery confines and is installed in various public spaces from pillows in bedding departments, to trees and lawns, to underground tunnels.
CLOTHES ENCOUNTERS – Sumi Perera (a leporello book 18 X 400 cm ) exhibited in ‘art of the STITCH’ an open International Biennial exhibition touring the UK till Nov 2006 and the WREXHAM Print International 2007 & 2008. Variation on the theme: 5th Triennial Paper & Bookarts, Chicago, USA 2008.
All human cultures adorn their bodies with clothes, which mark the boundary between the private and public space, forming a personal habitus. This book addresses the seen and unseen forces of the clothing industry. The readymade tailored garments beg us to slip into predetermined sizes, irrespective of the genetic makeup that has designed our body shapes and sizes. The amount of skin that maybe revealed or concealed shifts through temporal and cultural perspectives, again dictating what form of clothing is acceptable. This etched and stitched narrative explores the social currency that clothes hold, in establishing the dialogue between the wearer and viewer. Etched images of mannequins unfold against a backdrop of embossed dress patterns and stitch related words, rendering a tactile reading. Stitched words are unpicked and the memory is left behind (perforations made by the needle marks allow light to filter through to give another narrative). There are multiple readings throughout the book, similar to those that exist within the hieroglyphics that evolve within encounters with clothes.
