Sitting in a canteen in the Royal Academy art school, with huge naked statues chillin’ to one side, SUPERSUPER! talk to Hannah Perry about disco-ball cars, and the influence of the ’90s on her video art. Influenced by the personal and feeding it into bigger themes and comments on our society, Hannah Perry is an artist on the rise…
SS: When did you first start getting into creating art with video?
HP: I’ve always been into sculptural stuff and I was into a lot of snap-shot type photography years and years ago. The sort of grass-roots, going around with your camera like Nan Goldin… but I found the snapshots a bit too personal and wasn’t comfortable with my position in making work like that. I guess the snapshots transformed into a video camera. It was ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ by Mark Leckey which absolutely blew me away. Also, seeing the way VHS was used by Dara Birnbaum. She was the first person to mix VHS’s who did this fast cut up thing… She got footage of 70’s Wonder Woman and set it in a new light.
SS: Why did photography feel too personal?
HP: I did a series of photographs about my brother. He was really into taking steroids and working out so I photographed the development. But even something that came from my family had bigger themes like Machoism and I realised that I was always trying to make the personal feed into the bigger picture.
SS: What feels different about working with video?
HP: I video my own footage, but mixing it with found footage or really well known popular culture references gives it a different voice. When you mix the footage together you can’t tell which bits are by me and which are ‘found’, which gives different connections which aren’t always obvious. It’s strange but I just fell into working with video. There are other artists who might use found footage, but maybe distance themselves from it in way that can feel quite cynical. I think with my stuff it’s the absolute opposite, I hope there’s a voice that comes out, even if I am trying to remove it from my own personal experiences.
SS: You also have sculptural pieces too like the amazing glitter car ‘Mid-Life Disco’. How do they develop?
HP: Most of the time they’re part of a video I was trying to shoot which just didn’t work, where I was trying to say too much and it fell flat. They kind of morph into these ‘one-liners’. They’re part of the process but also stand alone and are less congested than the films.
SS: I guess it shows art can be funny and flippant too, it doesn’t always have to be super serious! Speaking of sense of humour – does working at the Royal Academy have a different atmosphere to other places you have worked? It seems so imposing!
HP: Yeah, it’s an amazing place to work and is getting more and more progressive… There are only 16 people in my year here so I guess it’s different in that way, more intimate. I saw Nicky Carvell’s (who used to work at SUPERSUPER!) graduate show and it had all these amazing 90s graphics. It made me think that my stuff could fit in here too.
SS: How come you have a password on website? So mysterious…
HP: Yeah! My friend and I were having this whole conversation about putting stuff online as a video artist – ways in which you can attempt to keep it special and not just put it on YouTube. My work on the laptop screen is not necessarily the context I want it to be seen. Sometimes I incorporate installation and so it’s important for people to come and see the work how it’s meant to be seen. People who are interested in seeing my work can ask for the password and see it online though. The login page on has little mini-mixes on. I have loads of little 30 seconds to a minute bit of footage – bits of mixed VHS that I’ve been messing about with so I put them up every month…
SS: Is the music you use in your videos as important as the footage?
HP: Yeah, I mean it’s a really big part of the piece. When I lived in Manchester my brother would always bring home tapes of 90′s dance music, Hacienda style, and I’d sneak in and listen to them. That’s something I’ve kept with me and used in my art… I’m trying to make my own samples to mix in with other bits.
SS: Overall, it seems like it was quite a natural progression to video art for you then?
HP: With making video I have quite a strict method. I do all the research and have quite an anal way of organising all the footage in one category, all the audio in another etc… The way it’s put together is the art work for me. I’m definitely going to keep using VHS but mixed in with pixalated YouTube clips and my shitty home movies. There’ll even be the odd bit of HD and I’m going to learn how to do after effects next year.
Being here [Royal Academy] I can work out and hammer out ways of doing that with a bit more freedom and experiment… I’ve been doing a bit of 2-D collaging… Although there’s no way I’m showing those to anyone because they’re shit!
Words: Jade French
