Axminster carpet? The material of the avant garde? You’d better believe it. In Anna Perach’s hands tufted wool is transformed into bulbous, beastly sculptures and painterly screens. The rich colours, fuzzy surfaces and curvy forms of these works invite touch. I want to rub my hands across Perach’s works, nuzzle into them, embrace them – but they are also monstrous, often concealing claws or teeth.
The Ukraine-born, London-based artist has been a curatorial favourite over the last five years. Her distinctive work has become a mainstay of group shows, most recently Unruly Bodies at Goldsmith CCA and Threads at the Arnolfini. The bluntly titled Holes is her first public solo show. Holes, I guess, because the work of tufting is one of piercing and penetration, but also because the show is full of suggested portals and openings. Some, such as the circular apertures in a pictorial screen, might be links between one world and another. Others are rather more bodily – surgical, or obstetric.
