Beyond time and space, art.

Winner of the Along the Path competition, Philippe Robert Pérono is exhibited at Palm Beach International Airport, from November 7, 2024 to May 7, 2025. We can scan the code at the bottom of the After the storm frame and discover this young man, who shares an anachronistic illustration of the famous fable The Oak and the Reed by Jean de La Fontaine. 

What is this nec plus ultra touch in his signature ? The artist-engineer introduces himself and explains it to us in 5 pillars :

1- Culture and identity 

Diversity as legacy, authenticity as posture

Where I am from ? Where I stand ?

I was born in Haiti. Haitian culture is a blend of African, European and pre-colonial cultures. My childhood was nourished by this very diverse expression of culture and identity, and by the history of Haiti. My heritage is therefore both African and European, with a share of the indigenous peoples of Quisqueya O’ Boyo, as Haïti was called before the arrival of the Spanish on the island in 1492, a moment that marked the beginning of an extremely violent colonization of the entire American continent.

Although my parents were concerned about protecting their children from the political and social context of our country, my siblings and I were very curious and sensitive to the events going on around us. My father is a photographer and entrepreneur, my mother a seamstress and florist. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized the extent to which they motivated my passion for art, even though it wasn’t voluntary at the outset.

I was also a very lively child, who didn’t like to do things the way everyone else did. When I was offered a toy, instead of using it as my friends did, I’d open it up to see what was inside and try to figure out how it worked. Often time, I’d end up in tears with scattered pieces of a toy I could no longer play with. It was probably my engineering mindset that was already revealing itself.

3- Nature and human nature 

Intriguing social relations, contradictory beauty

My vision of beauty as an artist?

I grew up in my hometown, Jacmel. It’s a peaceful town by the sea, but culturally very active. The tradition of Carnival is celebrated every year in Jacmel, with great artistic effervescence. Here, the entire population reveals its creative potential: there is an abundance and omnipresence of artistic expression. For the discovery-hungry child that I was, it was quite simply extraordinary. It was like a fairy tale that I experienced every year. When my friends would run away from a frightening mask, I would approach it, wanting to examine its details more closely. And the principle behind these papier-mâché masks is that the uglier the mask, the more complex it is, the more beautiful it is. I’ve kept this interest in zooming in on what’s out of place around me, in nature, in our social relationships, in this strange, sometimes downright contradictory beauty.

5- Purpose  

 A philosophical questioning through art and of art itself

Is there a message or a moral lesson to learn from my pieces ?

I don’t see art as a teacher, or as a judge of our choices and behavior. Rather, it’s a celebration of our boundless imagination, of our ability to create.

Of course, art is also this astonishing mirror that reveals so many perspectives we sometimes don’t even dare to consider.

In most of my works, I question a moment of human experience, the reasons behind it, the actions that determine their unfolding, what we feel, how it relates to our emotions, how it doesn’t depend on our emotions, what we know, what we don’t know, the moment that follows, where it might lead us. My concern is also whether we are intentional about this moment.

It’s an existentialist approach, which also applies to art as a human activity.

2- Time and space

Unpredictable, multidimensional representations

What inspires my technique?

The world and the relationships at work in it can be perceived and understood from an infinite number of angles. These ways of seeing are sometimes completely unexpected, unsuspected, or simply masked by our self-limitations, biases and taboos.

It’s not just a question of perception, it’s also a question of proportion and timing. And what’s even more fascinating is that these multiple factors of time and space take place at the same instant moment.

I always try to stay alert, to capture these multiple facets, and express them through my creations. 

My technique is based on these multidimensional frequencies, and I share them; like in "after the storm" for example. 

4- History and Architecture  

Human buildings, both witnesses and testimonies of our History 

How does the artist influence the engineer ? and vice versa ?

As an engineer, I consider human architectural constructions to be both witnesses and testimonies to our history. For example, I’ve worked as part of a team restoring old buildings, and it’s amazing how much you can learn from them. If only their walls had a voice audible to the human ear…Nature is also a witness and a testimony to our evolution; and it also has an evolution beyond human activity.

I strive to discover and express these multiple stories and their deeper meanings. What do they tell us about ourselves? About the world in which we live? What do they suggest we preserve or change?