art | style
Inside Out
Perdita Sinclair’s work explores what lies beneath the surface of ourselves. ‘Insula’ is the fi rst of a major series of exhibitions at Ventnor Botanic Garden that showcases art never before seen on the Isle of Wight, and introduces a weekend of famous names not to be missed
“I must have been about three or four, sitting cross-legged on the rug in my grandparents’ living room, thinking about why and how I came to exist,” says Perdita Sinclair. “Those thoughts made me feel like I was looking out at the world through a window, which both fascinated and frustrated me.
Dizzying notions for anyone let alone a three-year-old, but by attributing colours and shapes to her thoughts she rationalised the abstract. “I think this was the start of my journey into viewing existence through the aesthetic.”
‘What we present to the world is but a tiny part of who we are and what makes us function as human’
She describes her work as exploring what lies beneath the surface of ourselves, and for the art she presents in her exhibition Insula she even witnessed human dissection. “That was traumatic – but also exciting,” she says. “My work has long been concerned with the conscious mind hidden within our bodily casings. What we present to the world is but a tiny part of who we are and what makes us function as human, and I work from the inside out of a subject, showing studied and imagined interiors combined with forms and contours from the external world.”
Being invited to exhibit at Ventnor Botanic Garden was an opportunity to take further her explorations into the inner workings of life. The fact that the Garden is on the site of the old Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest was apt because dissections had taken place there in the treatment of tuberculosis. Beyond this, the whole idea of beginning her touring exhibition on an island was the perfect metaphor for exploring the Insula Cortex of the brain because ‘Insula’ is the Latin word for ‘island.’ “I’ve interpreted the Insula Cortex as meaning an Island in the brain which links human consciousness with botany and the senses.”
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Perdita admits her knowledge of botany was limited, but she was introduced to the Millennium Seedbank at VBG and became fascinated by seaborne seed, seeing a link between the human machine within the skeleton and the hard pod. Chris Kidd, curator of the Garden, explains the ability of seaborne pods to survive against the odds: “The salinity of sea makes it a poison to plants, greater still to vulnerable seeds, so seed that is sea dispersed almost always has a bulky, fi brous or impenetrable coat. These large seeds are released to the mercy of ocean currents and will travel the globe, eventually beaching in the unlikeliest of places.”
The intrigue and mystery created by the appearance of large seeds on beaches, apparently from nowhere, developed folklore to explain their mysterious origins, says Chris: “Lodoicea maldivica, the Coco de mer, is a giant fruit containing four seeds. Its suggestive shape, resembling a woman’s buttocks, held intrigue for centuries. “
To her paintings, then, many of which use the female form as the archetypal human, Perdita added the medium of sculpture: “The seeds are a perfect metaphor for what I had been exploring through painting – a hard shell capable of surviving, yet hidden within is all the potential and ingredients for life.”
Insula will run daily from 3rd to 22nd October between 10.30am and 4pm. The work will be for sale and commissions can be made. Parking and entrance to the exhibition is free but please feel free to donate to the VBG Friends charity who have kindly sponsored it. The Plantation room will be open for coffee and cakes.
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