Alex Pearl makes short films, which are then exhibited through video installation, screenings in cinemas & arts centres and international film/video festivals. He has also begun to explore exhibiting online, through podcasting, video-hosting sites such as tank.tv , and his own video blogs www.rotagavin.blogspot.com , www.protestfilm.blogspot.com & www.littlesuicides.blogspot.com

He works quickly on suddenly apprehended ideas, and often uses video as a parallel activity to drawing. Many of his shorter video pieces have a lot in common with automatic drawing in that he sets up situations where chance plays a large part in the outcome. These pieces are also comparable with the idea of the sketch or doodle, an initial, throwaway idea made visible. Sometimes these video drawings are developed into ideas for more substantial pieces; often they are left to fend for themselves.

Linking the films is a feeling of melancholy brought on by the powerlessness of his objects to resist external forces or overcome their own limitations.

Alex Pearl

Born:

Manchester 1968

Education:

BA hons Fine Art, UCE Birmingham

MA History of Art & Design, UCE Birmingham

Upcoming

Hun Gallery International , Hun Gallery, New York

Purescreen , Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (screenings)

Explore , Aspex Gallery off site projects, Portsmouth Screen06 , Portsmouth (solo screening)

Tulca , Visual Arts festival, Galway (group exhibition)

60 Seconds of Play , Get This Gallery, Atlanta

Norwich International Animation festival

Exhibitions:

2006

The Vending Machine Project , Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (multiples project)

The Moving Picture Show, BCA Gallery, Bedford

Drawing Links, The Drawing Room , London & Touring to Outpost, Norwich, International3, Manchester

Beyond the Call of Duty, Town Hall Galleries, Ipswich

Film Makers Show Case, Salt Gallery, Hale

60 seconds of Play . Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta, GA, & Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art .

2005

Indisposable , Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich

Regeneration, WAG at St Mary at the Quay, Ipswich

Trampoline, Reactor, Nottingham

Residencies:

2006

Automatic Filmmaking residency, Sideshow , Nottingham

2005

Automatic Filmmaking residency , WAG at St Mary at the Quay, Ipswich