Princess Leia by Perishable Rush Print

Perishable Rush (Netherlands, 1975) is a street artist in the broadest sense of the word. He finds his inspiration and materials by having a good look around when he is outside, always on the lookout for a story that needs be told and how that should be done. He uses perishable materials to create abstracts for the docile masses. The artist always finds himself amazed about things such as banality, aggression, war, anonymity, commerce and the vulgarity of contemporary media. Perishable Rush attempted to visualise this amazement in his work to show the world its true face and, more importantly, to show what is lurking behind that. To do this he roams the streets of European cities on foot or by bike with a large shopping bag in hand that he fills up with the trash from human manifestations during his trips. His current preference is thick layers of weathered posters that he peels off layer by layer, in much the same manner as he does in his work relating to human behaviour and the spirit of the times they originated from. By doing so, he hopes to find new answers to his questions on human behaviour and a world in which apathy and acceptance are closely related. Perishable Rush believes in the beauty of a world in which backgrounds, faces and perspectives together constitute a harmonious whole. That conception is directly reflected in his work as well as in the materials and techniques he uses. Literally. The poster layers he peeled off and the resulting meticulously accrued and constructed portraits have evolved from ‘ski mask’ through ‘balaclava’ to ‘Batman’. His silkscreen prints serve as a basis for the portraits. His portrait collages consist of a minimalist interplay of lines of carefully torn and glued paper with laser-cut refined nuances. “What I do with the portraits is I peel off the excess, layer by layer, to get to the true essence. I leave out any unnecessary lines,” Perishable Rush says. Together they constitute the facial image of today’s multicultural society and the questions raised on this subject by the artist. With his expressive portraits, Perishable Rush aims to draw viewers into the image that inspired him so that they can join him in his quest for answers to questions, in the form of trash used as material composed of the same layers as human conduct. New images emerge by continuously sampling, mixing, editing and rearranging his material.