Reminder

“You can’t step in the same river twice.” A poetic phrase from Heraclitus. It points out an important aspect of human existence.

Things around us and ourselves are in constant flux. Continuing this thought we can quickly arrive to the fact that life is transient and we cannot escape the inevitable.

Dark thoughts. But Perlaki chooses to see this from the brighter side. The beauty in life is the very nature of its impermanence. If we would be more at ease with this thought we would probably cherish our own self and others more dearly.

How do all these noble ideas connect to a half-eaten watermelon, some bubbles and a sweaty back?

Photography has the ability to freeze the ephemeral. To transform the everyday into something uncanny. Something sculptural.  It invites you to project your own subjective interpretation onto what you see. This is what most interests Perlaki about this medium.

The melon has been eaten, the ice cube melted, the bubbles burst, the sweat dried, the spit has been washed from the photosensitive paper…yet still their “shadow” remained as a memento. Prompting Perlaki that life – just like water – never stays the same, and we should pay closer attention to what’s happening. In the now.

Commissioned by Photo Australia and the City of Melbourne