David Perry (1933 – 15 April 2015) was a pioneering Australian experimental and underground filmmaker, video artist, and a founding member of Ubu Films (1965). He also practised as a photographer, poster artist and painter. During work on the production of ''The Theatre of Cruelty'' in Sydney, July 1965, he joined

Albie Thoms Albie Thoms (28 July 1941 – 28 November 2012) was an Australian film director, writer, and producer. He was born in Sydney, Australia. He was nominated for at the 1979 AFI Awards for Best Original Screenplay for Palm Beach. He is best known ...

, Aggy Read and others in establishing Ubu Films—named after

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics. Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...

's play '' Ubu Roi''—the precursor of the

Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative Sydney Women's Film Group The Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative was a co-operative of independent filmmakers, set up to distribute and exhibit their films and the films of other independent filmmakers both Australian and overseas. The collection even ...

.Mudie, Peter "Albie Thoms–David Perry: Selected filmwork (1964–1992); Dialogues (1994)". Uniprint, Perth WA, 1994. (Catalogue to Albie Thoms–David Perry screen exhibition, 19–22 April 1994) This was Australia's first consciously avant-garde filmmaking group. 16mm experimental films include ''Walking'' (1955), ''The Tribulations of Mr Dupont Nomore'' (1967); ''Bolero'' (1967); ''A Sketch of Abigayl's Belly'' (1968); ''David Perry's Album'' (1970) and ''Adam'' (1975). ''Ubu Films 1965–70'' a retrospective video compilation, was released in 1997. ''Refracting Glasses'' (1992) is a 109-minute feature film which "uses a range of techniques (actuality and staged footage, optical effects, animation) in an essay-like construction on the theme of the historical status of the artist invoking, amongst a diverse range of references, the Ern Malley hoax and the work of the Russian artist V. E. Tatlin.

Biography

Perry underwent his primary and secondary education in Sydney during the 1940s. In 1949–54 he served a printing-trade apprenticeship, after which he worked for various printers and on farms in New Zealand. In Sydney during the 1960s, he associated with the

Sydney Push The Sydney Push was an intellectual subculture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Its politics were predominantly left-wing libertarianism. The Push operated in a pub culture and included university students, academics, manual w ...

and developed as a painter, photographer and 8mm filmmaker. Prior to separation, he was married, with three children. He was employed by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in photographic positions and engaging privately in experimental film and video, and other artworks. It was during this time that he made the abstract videographic film ''Mad Mesh'', and the controversial electoral poster featuring "a continuum of pigs (inspired by Orwell's ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to crea ...

'')" with the slogan ''Whoever you vote for, a politician always gets in.'' His film, ''A Sketch on Abigayl's Belly'' which showed shots of a pregnant woman caused controversy when it was banned by the Commonwealth Film Censor in 1968 when the print returned from the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. In 1970

Don Chipp Donald Leslie Chipp, AO (21 August 192528 August 2006) was an Australian politician who was the inaugural leader of the Australian Democrats, leading the party from 1977 to 1986. He began his career as a member of the Liberal Party, winning el ...

, the Minister for Customs and Excise, in a conscious public gesture, overturned the banning of the film. He travelled to Europe with his second wife and their child, from 1971 to 1974, lectured in film and video at Middlesex Polytechnic in London where he produced essay films such as ''Utopian Memory Banks Present Fragments from the Past'' and ''My Dutch Newsreel''. Returning to Australia with his young daughter, he was artist-in-residence at Griffith University (1975–76) where he established a video studio and made works such as ''Interior with Views'', and was lecturer in film and video at the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education (now the University of Southern Queensland). He re-established in Sydney in 1980, being employed as a photographer and film/video producer for the NSW health authority and the Royal North Shore Hospital at St Leonards. Mosman Art Gallery presented ''Then and now and everything in between: The Art of David Perry'', a retrospective of his painting, drawing, photography, film and video in 2009. His short auto-biographical film ''Album'' 1970 was screened at the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

, 2014, in conjunction with the exhibition ''Pop to Popism''. Perry referred to many of his works as 'personal films', as opposed to commercial or genre production. Stephen Jones writes that 'Much of Perry's work turns on these aspects of video as mnemonic device reflecting his life and ideology'.Jones, Stephen. ''Synthetics: Aspects of Art and Technology in Australia'', 1956 - 1975, MIT Press, Cambridge and London, 2011 p219

References

External links

*National Film and Sound Archiv
Search Non-Theatrical Lending Collection
*Zuvela D
Danni Zuvela talks to an experimental film pioneer
'. '' RealTime Arts Magazine'', Sydney, Dec–Jan 2005
Scanlines: David PerryTributes to David PerryThe Experimental Films of David Perry, ArtFilms 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, David Australian film directors Australian film producers Australian photographers 1933 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists 20th-century Australian photographers Australian male painters

Biography

References

Further reading

External links