Rachel Perry (American, b. 1962)
Lost in My Life (Chiral Lines 3), 2016
Digital pigment
60.25 x 40.75 in.
Gift of John Andrew MacMahon ’95
It took me a few moments to recognize what was happening in this photograph – amidst the colorful, vibrating lines is a person, blending into the background and hiding their face with a piece of the abstract pattern of their environment. As it turns out, this hidden figure is not just anyone, but the artist herself, and the lines draw directly from her own life.
Artist Rachel Perry is best known for her manipulation of everyday items to comment on consumer practices, the accumulation of material, and overlooked aspects of daily life. In this particular work, she photographs herself camouflaged in all white, with only her hands, one arm, and the top of her head peeking out behind the section of backdrop she holds in front of herself. The background is covered in multicolored lines, which Perry created from art utensils she sourced from around her house. In fact, in her Chiral Lines series, Perry attempts to use every single marker, pencil, crayon, and other writing tool she owns to highlight, as she notes, “the history of the mark making, as well as the history of a household.” Each side of the drawing becomes an “imperfect mirror image,” referencing the definition of “chiral” as a reflected image that cannot be superimposed.
Matching her Chiral Lines method with her Lost in my Life series, Perry creates a self-portrait featuring herself but, more prominently, her materials. These imperfect, shaky lines create a sort of illusion behind her, something at once solid and permeable. From a distance, they almost recall the organic layers of geode, but up close, they suggest the quaking squiggles of a seismograph or a heart monitor. The way they are drawn across the floor and reach upwards in unison allow the lines to take over the space, embracing the figure within. I almost want to reach my hand through these lines – I can imagine them as tense strings, hanging from the ceiling, ready to snap or sway when stirred by movement.
In this photo and others in the series Lost in my Life, Perry is absorbed into the dynamic, colorful background (lost in her life, so to speak). Her environment becomes more important than her portrait, yet the small snapshots of her hands and forehand remind audiences that she is still very much present in this life of hers, even when it overwhelms her. The background also speaks to her sense of self, as a representation of the chaos and materialism that surrounds her everyday life and has become a part of her. It feels as though the viewer is peering into her mind, observing her thoughts and emotions as she interacts with her world. As someone often stuck in her own head, I find this depiction very relatable, although I’m sure my chiral lines would be far loopier and more tangled with one another.
– Gaby Sanclimenti ’25
Rachel Perry (American, b. 1962) was born in Tokyo, Japan and is now based in the northeastern U.S. Her art career has spanned many mediums, including photography, sculpture, drawing, and performance art. Her work examining contemporary culture has been featured in various collections, such as the Institute of Contemporary Art and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and exhibitions, including solo shows at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Drawing Center in New York. Perry has also received many awards and grants for her work, including four MacDowell Colony fellowships and three Massachusetts Cultural Council Awards for Excellence in three separate media.