Opening times:
Thu 23 - Sat 25 Oct: 10am-5pm
Thu 30 Oct - Sat 1 Nov: 10am-5pm
Isola reflects on the idea of the island as an existential condition. The images were photographed by John Perivolaris at the opposite ends of Europe, in the Western Isles of Scotland and the islands of the Northern Aegean, acknowledging the fact that the lives of Electra and John are defined, respectively, by their family origins in the Greek island of Chios and the Scottish island of Arran. Isola is a reflection in photographs, texts, and music on isolation and paradoxical connection.
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 lead John to begin reflecting on the experience of living between islands and on his own transnational identity as an islander, photographer, and writer. This lead John 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 his experience and imagination as a European. Consequently, as he faced the island landscapes and seascapes of his autobiography at the parallel margins of Europe, he was constantly asking `where am I?’ This is the same as the existential question of `who am I?’ Hence, if Isola is about the islands marking the boundaries of a European journey it is also about a journey through an interior landscape.
Alongside the photographs, John composed a series of poems to accompany the photographs that comprise Isola, a work that reflects on the island as an existential condition, in the context of European migration, and in the aftermath of the isolation imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic. The texts also provide the lyrics for the song cycle of the same title inspired by the photographs and composed by Electra Perivolaris for the soprano Héloïse Bernard. The first song of the cycle was performed at the 2022 Oxford Lieder Festival and had its international premiere in 2024 at the Yiannis Marinos Hall of the Megaron, Athens. The full song cycle is being premiered in various performances as part of soundfestival, intended as a photographic exhibition, Isola has evolved through collaboration with Electra Perivolaris and Héloïse Bernard.
This song cycle will be performed within the exhibition on the 31st October and 1st November.
Biography - John Perivolaris
John Perivolaris is a photographer and writer whose work often deals with themes of migration, refugee experience, diaspora, and memory. He is currently a member of the international Euroborderwalks team of researchers and artists based in the universities of UCC Cork (Ireland), Lodz (Poland), and Zagreb (Croatia) conducting a two-year project on the making and re-making of the European borders. His 2025 exhibition, Isola, in collaboration with composer Electra Perivolaris combines photographs, text, and a song cycle, and is part of soundfestival (Aberdeen).
The recipient of a Creative Scotland Open Fund Award in 2025, John is the author of nineteen self-published photobooks and zines, copies of which have been acquired, among others, by the National Library of Scotland as part of its Photography Collection.
