By Han & Key(photo), Southeast Net Australia, Aug 26
Over the past ten years, for every Aussie art fan, Palla Jeroff is the name that can never be avoided.
20 years ago, when young Palla struggled selling his works, his agent told him it took up to 20 years before the market recognizes his talent. 20 years later, the talker’s story came true.
“Of course he’s a wonderful talker. It’s a universal knowledge that art agents are, without exception, wonderful talkers.” Said Palla, “But today, I started to take that seriously.”
Xinjiang or Australia? Or neither
What makes Palla Jeroff the special one, apart from many other Chinese Australian artists who are unconsciously labeled with “the Chinese artist”, is probably on his face and ID card. When you pick up an art magazine with a Palla Jeroff work on it, either from his work, name, or even face, China could be the last name that possibly comes through your mind. When it finally breaks down to you and you realize his connection with Chinese culture, it became a wonderful surprise.
People who know about him never stop linking his works with two geographical sites, Xinjiang and Australia, as they try to find out the connection between the two areas half earth away from each other and their impact on Palla.
To as many questions as you may raises about Palla and his art works, is Xinjiang or Australia the answer? Or maybe neither, speaking from himself.
“Of course where an artist grow up has a huge impact on him, plus I brought my home culture all the way across the ocean, which makes that impact even more complex.”
“But purely speaking of art, I don’t think either Xinjiang or Australia can be a decisive answer. Art does not copy reality.”
“Artist picks up what’s valuable in traditional forms of culture and then purify it, filter it and apply on his work.”
“It does not matter where he’s from or where he lives. It’s himself that matters.”
Work environment is everything
Palla would rather call his studio a combination of warehouse and studio, where he lets out every piece of his craziness, to which he’s not 100% pleased with.
“My dream studio would be a lot more decent.”
First thing’s first, turn on the radio. Palla hates silence and staleness. With different kinds of music on, Palla switches to different project in every hour of the day, just to keep his mind and ideas fresh.
To him, work means having fun. By saying have fun, he means a lot of fun. Fragmental management of time is just a way of it.
“This is the way of keeping my mind fresh and I need to keep this process as enjoyable as possible.”
“When I focus on just one piece of work, I’m finished.”
