Biography
Emily Perry is a British artist born in 1991 in Cambridge, UK, who lives and works in Berlin. She obtained a BA in Fine Art Sculpture from the University of Brighton in 2014 and moved to Berlin soon after graduating.
Perry reflects on the relationship between appearance and the physical and social constraints that determine identity, responding to identified pressures and stereotypes through a gendered and cultural lens. Through humour Perry engages her audience in the moment, to make them consider aspects of sexuality, personality and other people.
She is particularly interested in interactive, performance work that relies on audience participation, as she believes it creates a potent intimacy with the viewer. She creates often uncomfortable, socio-artistic situations which force interaction in subtle and frequently humorous ways. These experiences are not just for the audience but for the art work itself. By using people as a raw material in her practice, Perry confronts the role of the spectator: both sculpture and gallery visitor become the subject, the viewer and the viewed. There is a sense that the work might be enjoyed by her audience as a kind of guilty pleasure.
