Art show message from inside

Marina Perkovich's solo show
glass
artist



THE pretty colours and whimsical drawing in Marina Perkovich's solo show belie a confronting message about broken people abandoned by society.
In the early 1990s Perkovich was a social worker, helping to rehabilitate people who had been in state care or juvenile detention and were unprepared for a life of independence. Typically they were homeless and psychologically disturbed and as adults had wound up in prison for petty crimes.
"There was nowhere for them to go and so they were in jail," Perkovich said. "It was just when people were starting to see the impact of de-institutionalisation."
Perkovich, who is based in Brunswick, has a fashion label called Dark Butterfly and worked for a time with colourful Melbourne art identity Vali Myers.
The screenprints, embroidery and pottery in the show incorporate and are inspired by small objects Perkovich's clients made or found for her drawings, poetry, pottery, or even pretty pieces of broken glass.
"What I wanted to express with this show is there were a lot of talented people who came from the institutions." Sadly, Perkovich said many were now dead.
"The people that I worked with, when you are in a firm relationship with them, they are some of the most delicate and gentle people you could ever meet."
As an artist, she said she felt a responsibility to represent her clients' plight, but had needed a few years to reflect before she could make art about them.