Interview with Cecile Perret: The 7 Year Itch Show

Words by Emilia Sogaard

Visiting Cecile Perret’s exhibition at the Art of Protest Gallery, in September 2023, and then interviewing her about her artistic practice at the Norman Rea Gallery, it was inspiring to hear her approach to art and the effects of location and space on her work. The exhibition, The 7 Year Itch show, was the result of a micro-residency at the gallery in the city of York and a long-standing relationship between Argentinian artist Cecile Perret, and gallery founder Craig Humble. When talking to Cecile about her inspiration for the exhibition, her first solo exhibition in the U.K., she spoke about how her work has a lot to do with the number seven.

Window display by Cecile Perret at the Art of Protest Gallery, September 2023.

Cecile: It [number 7] is very magical and charged with a lot of meaning. I’m doing this exploration with theories that put a lot of importance into the human experience divided into 7-year periods – called septennium. I started paying attention to those theories in my life, and I found they were very significant, so I decided to make a journey through them.

I started with the first one – I went to where I was born, my hometown (Patagonia, Argentina). It was very emotional; a lot of things came out of it. A lot of things not directly expressed in the work, but underneath the work. For instance, at the gallery you saw one major piece of recycled work. That piece is actually made out of 1350 triangles, more than 15 paintings of mine cut up in little pieces and sewn together again as a patchwork. Kind of an ode to my work, pieces that have maybe lived a little bit too much, or lost their momentum or were part of series, which by themselves don’t make so much sense. So, I thought I would do this major recycling exercise.

1350 isosceles triangles cut out of more than 15 paintings, then sewn and top stitched together to form a patchwork painting roughly measuring 170 x 217 cm. SEP2022, taken from @cecile_perret.

Cecile: From the very direct way of using found material to the very act of recycling my own work. Which I think is an extreme way of recycling, it comes to question the value of art. Why are you destroying something you could sell? Or make money with? I still feel like my duty is not in creating an endless pile of work, but it’s creating good work. There’s a difference between the two. There are some paintings which probably have 2 or 3 paintings underneath. I’m into recycling.

A lot of recycling art now is about the climate and comes from an ecological approach or out of  environmental concern. Whereas Cecile’s art recycles itself. This artwork on unstretched canvas (featured above) showed an extreme level of recycling which Cecile has always incorporated in her work. Throughout her artistic practice she uses a lot of different materials, with the medium also varying from street art to art sold at the Art of Protest Gallery.

Cecile: But I was interested actually in not putting the canvas on a stretcher, having it hang a little bit more old school, like a tapestry, because we don’t need this structure all the time. I use a lot of different materials, and textiles are coming into my range of materials more recently. I’m using the sewing machine a lot, I’m using these new ways for me of recycling my work or reworking it, patchwork painting, hanging tapestry style, also pieces of my old work or found canvas sewn together. Your garbage is my treasure.

Artist Cecile Perret at the opening night of her exhibition, September 2023.

We also spoke a lot about the effect of where the work is to be hung or exhibited and how this changes its interaction with the viewer and display.

Cecile: Studio art is always different to street artwork. The space will always condition the artwork, absolutely. When you are in the street, the surface you are painting or pasting on, will tell you what to do in a way. You can have an idea, but then the materials themselves are going to tell you what to do or how to follow up.

In relation to the 7 Year Itch Show, where Cecile travelled to different locations which held importance to her life it was interesting to speak about the specificity of the location to her artworks. She was in the city of York for only 2 weeks this time, yet the place, culture and community have a significant impact on her state of mind and therefore her artwork.

Cecile: My paintings, my way of approaching art is absolutely emotional to start with. For instance, when I went back to my hometown [there was a] feeling of melancholy, or of trying to find something. So, obviously, the state of mind is one. And then, coming here [to York], its [another state]. [York is] a very exciting place to be. The location, where you are working makes every difference.

A selection of Cecile Perret’s artworks on display at The 7 Year Itch Show.

During Cecile’s stay in York, she not only made artwork to exhibit at the gallery, which was then up for sale, but she also got involved with the community in York; both local residents as well as some of the tourist population in the city. The York Communal Project was to make a patchwork and was open for all.

Cecile: You could come out of the street and stay and paint, there were small patches of canvas, actually some of them were old paintings of mine cut up, so that they would have already something on them. There were blank canvases as well as these already worked on by me. People could choose whatever they felt like doing, so if you wanted to work on a white canvas and actually, I thought that is what most people would end up doing. But they didn’t, they chose the painted ones. It was really amazing and a nice opportunity to meet a lot of people from York, and people from other places.

Founder and owner Craig Humble (right) at the opening night of the exhibition, September 2023.

Emilia: It must have been interesting seeing people work on top of your own art.

Cecile: I really love it, they want to paint on top of it, but they don’t… It was fun. Something I enjoy a lot and cultivate, is the random aspect of the creation. It’s a very important aspect of artwork, and sometimes we [artists] put ourselves in a box, in a way of doing things [limiting ourselves]. The randomness of having people just doing things, doodle, using whatever colours, it becomes something that you wouldn’t have done on your own, and that brings an element that I like and enjoy a lot. They can be perfect seeds of an idea to explore later. It’s fantastic.

Talking to Cecile about the opening night of the exhibition she said: It was very interesting. I’m always intrigued by a gallery context, because in a gallery you always have the aspect of selling work. As an artist it is a very vulnerable position to be in, there are aspects of me on the walls, that even some of my friends don’t know, some very private and very particular ways we see things – which is the very reason we make art.