An interview with artist Steve Perfect
- Written byTim Gibney
- Published date 29 October 2024
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Central Saint Martins PhD Candidate and member of Post-Grad Interest Group 'Subcultures' Tim Gibney, interviews Steve Perfect an artist and Central Saint Martins MA Fine Art Alumni (2006).
Creative inspiration can spring from unlikely sources. This includes a little-celebrated strip of headland located on the south bank of the Thames near to the town of Dartford called the Swanscombe Peninsula, and which is home to an odd mix of large industrial sites and several nature reserves. It is nonetheless both the inspiration for and subject of 'If Two Paths Meet', a new solo exhibition by artist and Central Saint Martins alumnus Steve Perfect.
You describe If Two Paths Meet as a response to a series of visits to Swanscombe Peninsula. Coming from south-east London, it’s perhaps not an obvious place for artistic inspiration. So for those who don’t know, can you tell us a bit about the area itself, and how it inspired you to produce a body of work?
I’ve always been a keen walker and since moving to south-east London ten years ago, north Kent and the Thames Estuary have been the nearest bits of wilderness for me. Swanscombe Peninsula is formed by one of the many bends in the Thames as it heads out to sea. It’s a wild place although there is still industry there too. You walk down from the station on a footpath with huge recycling plants on either side, then you go through a gate and have a choice of two paths both of which disappear into the mass of trees and bushes.
On my many visits I took one or other path and eventually worked out how they linked up nearer the river. I decided to use this physical feature as the name of the exhibition using it as a metaphor to link the walking and thinking I did at Swanscombe with the work I was making in the studio. The peninsula is threaded with paths and tracks but I found it difficult to work out how they all fitted together and I’d often emerge somewhere I’d seen before but not expected to see there. The drawings are a lot like that.
Can you tell us more then about the exhibition and the work you’ve produced for it?
On the peninsula I took pinhole photographs using a small wooden camera and colour film. It’s a slow process. The exposures can last up to ten minutes, which I usually time by counting out loud. Of the many I took I’ve selected three for the exhibition and had them printed 120 cm square, which is big enough to give the impression of walking into the landscape.
While wandering around I picked up bits of debris and rubbish. The peninsula has seen many industrial and agricultural uses over the centuries and more recently has been used for landfill so there’s much to find. Some of the things I took back to the studio and started drawing round them. I’d been doing some still life and I started drawing round pots and jars from the studio instead of drawing them in the conventional way. Following this technique of tracing outlines led to a new field of inquiry and the drawings in the exhibition are the results.
You graduated from CSM with an MA in Fine Art in 2006. Tell us a little about your career and work since then.
I was a bit unusual in coming onto the MA without having any previous fine art education. My BA was in literature but I got very interested in photography and did some City & Guilds courses. I wanted to progress as quickly as I could and the fine art MA seemed the most interesting option. I wasn’t sure if they’d accept me but they did and it truly changed my life. Within a couple of weeks of starting the course I was thinking of myself as an artist rather than a photographer.
Since then I’ve been making work continually and exhibiting regularly. I mainly work with drawing now, but I still use photography and text, and have also used other media at different times.
What are your recollections of your time at CSM?
The two years I spent on the course are among the most significant in my life. It changed my outlook on so many things. The tutors were great, but the biggest influence was the other students, such an amazing group of talented, thoughtful, resourceful people. I couldn’t help but be massively influenced.
CSM, of course, moved to Granary Square in 2011 after you graduated. Have you visited the new site?
I’ve been to the new site a couple of times, most recently for a ceramics fair.
What do you make of it?
It’s an amazing building, quite different from the old one in Charing Cross Road where we were mainly based. I loved that old art school, which seemed encrusted with the dreams and obsessions of generations of artists. Everything must change though, and I’m sure current students will have similar memories of the new site and the experiences they have there.
Beyond the new exhibition, what plans do you have? I understand you have another solo exhibition at The Stone Space in Leytonstone coming next year.
If the work for If Two Paths Meet has been like a concept album, the work I’ll be showing at The Stone Space will be more along the lines of a ‘greatest hits’. People who follow my Instagram will know many of the drawings. I hope they’ll come along to see them in real life!
If Two Paths Meet is at the Sir Peter Blake Gallery, Dartford Library, Central Park, Market Street, Dartford DA1 1EU from November 4th to 16th. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-4pm.
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