Dr John Perivolaris – Isola

Isola reflects on the idea of the island as an existential condition.

The images were photographed at the opposite ends of Europe, in the Western Isles of Scotland and the islands of the Northern Aegean, acknowledging the fact that John’s life is defined, respectively, by his family origins in the Greek island of Chios and the Scottish island of Arran, where he now lives.

Resonating with the etymology of the word ‘island’, the series was begun in April -May 2020, in a period of enforced isolation on Arran during the first coronavirus lockdown in the UK. The detachment afforded by living through this period led the artist to begin reflecting on the experience of living between islands and on his own transnational identity as an islander and photographer.

This has since led to find parallels between islands at the edges of Europe to the point where, in this work, they merge to become the Island that defines John’s experience and imagination as a European.