Maya Perry Translates Her Personal Traumas in Her Hypersensitive Works
Artist Maya Perry was born and raised in New York City until early adolescence when her family moved to Tel Aviv. Currently the artist is spending her time between the two cities, showcasing her work and performing with punk band ‘Laila’, where she is the lead singer and drummer.
I became familiar with Perry’s works while she was a student at Minshar School of Art (2013-2017); her drawings fascinated me. On one hand, her style is naive looking, innocent and pure, and on the other, it’s filled with pain, sexual exploration and trauma. Her works not only tell a story, but bravely reveal pieces of her soul. Her work revolves around her sensitivity to the psychology of trauma and post-trauma as the foundation of her artistic practice.
Her graduate exhibition at Minshar, When I was a child, she was a child, felt like a coming-of-age story. The installation included three animated films, three light boxes of different sizes, sketches, photographs, texts and a piano composition. Perry focuses mainly on the dialogue between the conscious and the subconscious, media and culture, and the subsequent effects it has on our physical form, perception, trauma and sexual exploration.
Perry’s goal is to translate her personal traumas into universal expressions, encouraging the viewer to raise crucial questions about themselves from the perspective of a non-judgmental, hypersensitive, heart-beating animal. By highlighting how moments of intimacy and vulnerability intersect with memories of violence and manipulation, she explores how embedded trauma affects us as individuals and as a society. Her main focus is drawing, experimental animation and installation.
Maya Perry was supposed to enter Raw Art's gallery space in Tel Aviv to continue an interactive group exhibition alongside five other artists. Due to the covid-19 pandemic she was unable to physically enter the gallery space, then she opened Youaresafe.net an experimental/emotional way of dealing with the fast pace changing reality.
