This Starry Sky Lights Up Because of You

In November 2014 UNNC library opened an exhibition by the artist,
James Johnson-Perkins.

In this ever shifting universe, where the rug is frequently pulled out from under our feet it is no surprise that some look for consolation to the heroes and icons who were conduits of our childhood adoration and sense of wonder. Johnson-Perkins’ work unashamedly hinges on the theme of nostalgia and by degrees the viewer becomes a participant in his grandly realised backwards-looking vision. Hanging behind the library desk in all its 150cm x 530cm glory, the centrepiece of the exhibition, ‘The Great Battle’, depicts a confrontation between the forces of good and evil, superimposed onto the elegant backdrop of a Venetian scene inspired by Canaletto.

This apocalypse is strewn with iconic baddies- Godzilla, Jabba the Hut, the Marshmallow Man; as well as real-life villains like Myra Hindley and Al Capone. The good guys, Bruce Lee, Kenny Daglish and Wonder woman are positioned on the right side of the giant work, offering hope of redemption. In this showdown victory for the righteous is far from assured, and literally must be snatched from the jaws of Jaws, with Spielberg’s shark (itself a riff on Melville’s monstrous white whale, Moby Dick) leaping majestically from the waters of the canal. Elsewhere, as a reminder of the demons within, Jack Nicholson’s character from The Shining peers menacingly out from behind a Venetian blind on a shady backstreet corner- “Here’s Johnny!”. These super high-resolution Gigapan images are put together using source paintings and photographs, Photoshop and hi-tech rendering and imaging techniques; each one can take up to 1-2 years to compete. The Jaws example illustrates the painstaking attention to detail involved, with the shark and flying spray blended seamlessly into the waterway scene.

The Gigapan work with the most obvious connection to the 'starry eyed' title is the portrait of celebrated British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore. Johnson-Perkins photographed the one man cultural institution among his telescopes, books and trinkets after a fan letter from the artist (Moore had presented legendary BBC program The Sky at Night) led to an invitation from a then elderly Moore to come and visit him in his home. There is something gravity defying about the piece, with various aircraft, planets and Tetris blocks hanging suspended in the room. The detail is so well mapped, that in places it’s difficult to know which objects were actually in the room at the time of photographing, and which were superimposed on afterwards. A modern silver TV set at an oblique angle carries an authentic looking image of the inauthentic looking moon landing, while Moore, dressed in Khaki’s looks resolutely out at the viewer through his famous monocle.

In this exhibition space, along a narrow corridor in the library you find yourself (somewhat akin to a Tetris block) sandwiched between the portrait, with its carnival of astronomy and space-related imagery, and a much starker piece entitled ‘Space Invaders’. The latter is a panoramic photograph of the Omani desert with rows of pixellated baddies from the iconic arcade game transposed over the desert landscape.

The title of this exhibition, ‘This Starry Sky Lights Up Because of You’ draws on an English phrase that caught Johnson-Perkins’ eye on the cover of a notebook at a local Chinese stationary outlet. Staying alive to the poeticism of his surroundings is a part of the artist’s aesthetic. He explains to visitors craning their necks upwards at a screen mounted on the wall of the stairwell that the video piece on display, ’The Sturovo Super Hero Society’ was the culmination of a separate project undertaken while Johnson-Perkins was at an Artist Residency in Slovakia. Working on the theme of guardians of a bridge, which separates Strurovo from the Hungarian town of Esztergom, the artist invited members of the local community to imagine their own superhero identities, collaborating with them to create masks and costumes.

This slice of film successfully captures the verve and energy of the inhabitants of the village as well as the creative power of the river meandering along in the background. Various masked figures were filmed engaging in bouts of spontaneous activity- folk dancing, musical performance, martial arts, or simply kicking a football around. The masks are scary and grotesque, but also latent with a kind of subversive humor characteristic of other of Johnson-Perkins’ works, which art critic Malcolm Gee has found to “…mediate ironically between the forms of art and the fantasy of childhood play”. The masked fiddler participant eking out a melodious yet slightly unhinged sound with manic movements of his bow is particularly memorable, visually recalling dreamlike images conjured from the brush of Chagall while his playing provides an atmospheric soundtrack to much of the short film.

On the second floor hangs Johnson-Perkins’ ‘The Assembly of the Gods’, where around 150 Gods gather against a backdrop at a temple in Katmandu, Nepal. Attendees at the viewing have fun picking out the various Gods on show, working out which is which- from which religion, faith or mythology. Among Kali, Buddha and Christ we are arrested by a truly terrifying image from a work by Goya depicting the Greek God of time Saturn, quite horribly devouring one of his children from the head downwards.  This is a reminder of our own mortality and a cue to pass around some cans of strong German pilsner (Be merry, my friends, be merry) smuggled in for this occasion.

Shortly after this Johnson-Perkins’ teacher of Chinese Art and Calligraphy, Jack Jiang (Recipient of the Golden National Prize for painting) presented his pupil with a sumptuous Chinese tea set to cement their friendship and honor the occasion of this exhibition’s opening. It was encouraging to see so many students of Nottingham’s Chinese Campus responding to the Gigapan pieces in this exhibition, taking part in a dialogue based on the significance and merits or otherwise of these works of art. Johnson-Perkins’ collaboration with the library and library staff, students and teaching staff on ‘This Starry Sky Lights Up Because of You’ can also be read as symbolic of a friendship of sorts and this event is indicative of enhanced curiosity and transfer of ideas across the cultural divide.

Ronan Kelly
English and Linguistics Department, The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China

'This Starry Sky Lights Up Because of You' Solo Exhibition, The University of Nottingham Library China, November 201