UK / Duration 1m 29s / 2006

The Clockwork Protests (2006 – 2008) were a series of films in which a small clockwork protest was made in a variety of locations around the world. A kit containing a clockwork protester and placards were dispatched to various locations and then passed from person to person. No limits were set on how or where the clockwork protesters were used or what they were protesting against. The resulting films were sent back to the artist for editing and screening on their own website.

Protest Films

This film was edited from footage collected by: Olga, Sascha and Katya, Florensky in St Petersburg, Russia. This project was supported by the Arts Council of England.

A true renaissance man, Alex Pearl makes: mini epic films, video installations, games, photographs, sculpture, blogs and books. Using readily available materials and software the work often has a feeling of improvisation, an initial throwaway idea made visible.

Throughout his practice there is a sense of an acceptance of failure or disappointment as important parts of the human condition. He makes light with big issues and is, in turn, haunting and funny. His humorous sculpture typically conveys a sense of the accidental, eternally on the brink of failure or collapse.

“Alex Pearl creates situations, which illustrate our predicament. His short videos have the improvisational nature of the sketch. They revolve around the fate of simple creatures conjured from lollipop sticks or ping-pong balls. These creatures are set in motion through primitive actions and machines, and filmed whilst left to their fate. This fate is, of course, dictated by gravitational and other forces, plus a great deal of chance. The power of these understated and subtle films belie their impoverished roots.”
(Kate McFarlane, Drawing Links Catalogue, 2006)

Alex Pearl was born in Cheshire, educated in Birmingham and live and works in Ipswich. In the last two years has shown in: New York, Berlin, Belfast, The Hague, St Gallen, Manchester, Munich, San Francisco, London, Marseille, Stoke on Trent, Lincoln, Sydney, Cardiff and Valencia. His recent commission for the Whitstable Biennale was based on a mistake and his 17 channel installation called “Pearlville” was shown as part of Unspooling: Artists and Cinema at the Cornerhouse, Manchester. Lately, he has been unsuccessful in his Arts Council funding application to slaughter a large number of rival artists.

http://www.alexpearl.co.uk/