︎︎︎ My developing goal is to “speak more conversationally, with rather than at an audience, in the rhythm of my own feelings” Stuart Hall
I am a (British-Jamaican) multidisciplinary practice-based artist and educator, interested in self-determination and how we might make versions of home for ourselves while challenging governed borders of place and body. I am, in no particular order, Black, Queer, invisibly disabled and autistic, all of which appear within my practice as methodologies for making or symbols of resistance.
I tend to work with text, installation, sculpture (assemblage) and moving image. All of which allow me to articulate a sense of belonging, a feeling, and reimagine atmospheres that place both artist and audience in the same space. Most of these mediums require intimate engagement; text work asks the viewer to come closer so that they can read the work, installation invites the viewer step into or onto it, to become a part of the work too, and some of my sculptures are made up of objects donated by others, making them a co-maker and accompanying storyteller.
I tend to work with text, installation, sculpture (assemblage) and moving image. All of which allow me to articulate a sense of belonging, a feeling, and reimagine atmospheres that place both artist and audience in the same space. Most of these mediums require intimate engagement; text work asks the viewer to come closer so that they can read the work, installation invites the viewer step into or onto it, to become a part of the work too, and some of my sculptures are made up of objects donated by others, making them a co-maker and accompanying storyteller.
Themes that continue to appear within my practice-based research are self-determination, a claiming back of the self through the act of searching and belonging. This is often based in the negotiating of identity and what that negotiation might look like and depend upon for its success. Whilst my immediate concerns are relating to belonging, identity and self-autonomy, these concerns began in the research of afro-indigenous spirituality and what pre-colonial Western African cultural practices and folklore looked like.
I am currently a trustee for FVU and recently served on a regional arts advisory board and a national artists council that advocate for the development and protection of artists. I have previously exhibited and worked with Studio Voltaire, Hospital Rooms, Ikon Gallery, the International Curators Forum, iniva, LUX Scotland and Serpentine Galleries in London. I am proud to work out of a studio in the heart of the Midland’s vibrant art community in Birmingham, working closely with local galleries and organisations such as Grand Union, Vivid Projects, The New Art Gallery Walsall and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
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Photography credits:
(1) The confession: part 1, Katerzyna Perlak
(2) A message from my ancestors, Katerzyna Perlak
(3) Epiphany (Temporaire) installation, Katerzyna Perlak
(4) Y: the symbol of man, Amadeusz
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Photography credits:
(1) The confession: part 1, Katerzyna Perlak
(2) A message from my ancestors, Katerzyna Perlak
(3) Epiphany (Temporaire) installation, Katerzyna Perlak
(4) Y: the symbol of man, Amadeusz
Arts Foundation Future Awards Shortlisted Artist for Visual Art (2025)
Arts Council England DYCP recipient (2022)
Arts Council England DYCP recipient (2022)