
Art is communication. It is a medium that has been used for eons to tell a story, one that is intimate, just between the artist and the viewer: Whether it’s a whisper or a scream it is personal, because each person interprets the message differently. It is an ongoing conversation that is repeated with different results and outcomes each time the work is seen.
Two young artists, Peregrine and EGOR (Eilish Gormley), are exhibiting their latest work in Salem, and each one is telling the same story, differently. They each tell a story of self-discovery, and are reinterpreting the use of their mediums while sharing their journey.
Peregrine, a nonbinary artist from Portland, has their latest series, Cut & Draw, showing at Salem on the Edge through Feb. 2. The installation is a combination of collage and hand-carved linocut prints. Each collage is paired with a print which is intentionally an imperfect reflection of another.

The use of space and size play a prominent role in Peregrine’s art. Their collages and prints reflect a thoughtful meditative approach to creating a sense of depth. This, partnered with the filled and absent spaces in their prints, creates an uneasy feeling for the viewer.
The space between each collage panel and print creates a different sort of confusion, a sense of being unanchored, grasping for something to cling to as the eyes search for the missing piece.
The overlay of disruption adds to the experience. There is a stop-and-jerk motion for the brain which falls seemingly into the unfilled spaces.

“These pieces are all shaped pretty long. They are more panels,” they said of the collages. “Working in those panels really allowed me to fill the space but also play with how long and narrow it was. I liked how that turned out, because it allows the viewer to scan it. It’s not really conventional in terms of setting it in a shape or a size that throws the viewer off.”
The textures compound this sense of being adrift. The choice of media adds yet another layer of unease. Peregrine’s use of classic foreign-film and action-movie posters and three-dimensional embellishment creates a sensation of playful confusion laced with a fear of the unknown, movie-like; it’s the humor before the jump scare that adds to the suspense of the panels.
There is also a certain amount of Dadaism to the collages. Their intention is to shock, disrupt, and cause sensation. They achieve this.


Peregrine, “Octopus” print (left) and “Octopus” collage (right).
“I did want it to feel like a big space, too,” Peregrine said. “I definitely wanted a sense of surrealism. Why is there a bird skull in front of the space, and why is there wine being spilled onto it? … a necklace coming around with the beads partially covering the genitals of the figures?
“It’s concerning when you see a face cut in half in any context. It is kind of meant to be off-putting and to allow the viewer to ask the question of, why is it offset? What’s happening between the eyes? Where’s the rest of the information? What’s the expression on the face? And why is there another guy coming between the face, too? Who’s the clown in the middle there?”
“Yeah, so that’s meant to be concerning.”

The prints give one the sense that they are peering through the looking glass. Rather than being distinct, they are reflections that often complete a portion of the collage while providing a distorted duplicate.
One such print replaces the missing portion of a face cut in half at the collage’s edge. But it is a distortion of that face, with slightly skewed lines and minor changes intended to throw the viewer off. It creates a feeling of unease, yet you cannot look away. This unease is magnified by the gap between each piece.
“The collage really allowed me to see and study a lot of different kinds of textures and how I would translate that into a drawing and then a print,” Peregrine said. “I love textures … which I guess is reflected in the show.”
It is easy to see Peregrine’s work as a search for an understanding of their identity and their place in the world, but it would be a shame to simplify their work this way. This is a complex analysis of how they and we fit into the world. What is our place? Who judges, and who do we judge, and why? This search for self is the quest that all of us undertake, and it is never complete.
***
“Cut & Draw” by Peregrine will be on exhibit until Feb. 2 at Salem on the Edge, 156 Liberty St. N.E., Salem. Peregrine’s work can also be seen on their website at peregrineart.squarespace.com and on Instagram @peregrines_pearl
***
Peregrine’s art is well worth a visit to Salem on the Edge, which is under new ownership by a pair of artists who also both teach at Western Oregon University.
“We purchased the gallery in early October after Melanie Weston (the previous owner) announced the gallery would be closing in September. Our first opening as the new owners was November 1st,” said Anna Davis.
“Eric (Frey) and I have worked together at Chemeketa and Western Oregon University. We have discovered that we are very aligned in our goals for bringing art to our community and inspire each other creatively and enjoy collaborating on just about any project. We each bring our own distinct vision and skill sets to the gallery as well, and so together we hope to be able to extend the gallery’s impact and sustainability even more.”
The gallery features the work of well-known artists from the Pacific Northwest as well as that of emerging artists. Hours are 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon-4 p.m. Sundays.
***

THE EXPLORATION OF SELF is at the root of EGOR’s (Eilish Gormley’s) installation An Angel Will Appear. The show, in the Focus Gallery of Salem’s Bush Barn Art Center through Feb. 23, explores the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in contemporary terms.
The Annunciation is primarily a Catholic celebration. In the Christian Bible the angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she will conceive a son, Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
EGOR uses a combination of film, written story, an original composition, photos and painting to tell her own version of the story. In it, a young woman has visions of an angel who will visit her with good news.
The short film is essentially one act with three scenes set in two timelines, and explores the impact that the expected visitation will have on the main character. It is the essential component of the installation.
It is a look at the social impact of having a choice as to whether to accept the visitation or not. One of the key components of this exploration for EGOR is the weaponization of motherhood and pregnancy.
“It saddens me that pregnancy and motherhood, whether it’s something that someone wants or doesn’t want, the fact that it can be a very terrifying reality if there’s something that goes wrong,” EGOR said. “I just think it’s really dishonorable to use God to put people in that position.
“This angel that is supposed to be an angel of good news for many people who are in these riskier states, these states where they can be imprisoned whether it’s an abortion or whether it’s a miscarriage that gets misinterpreted, this thing that is supposed to be like a joyful thing … the way that it’s being used makes it a darker omen.”
The ability to choose one’s own fate lies at the heart of the installation. The viewer walks away from the exhibit with more questions than answers.
Would Mary have chosen this fate, this pregnancy, if given the opportunity not to? Does taking away a woman’s right to choose take away the woman herself? Does she then become just a vessel, no longer autonomous or self-determining? In the end is her humanity recognized?
“The idea of the video is that there’s two timelines going on of the scenario of the angel appearing. Is this an angel of enunciation of good news or is this an angel of death? Or is it kind of the same?” EGOR said.
“The one in which I would call it the more modern woman who’s exploring the monastery versus the more like medieval woman that’s like outside of it praying, she ends up dodging that fate. I was thinking about that third one, the exterior shot, as sort of like the subconscious.
“She’s making this decision that with the gun, that she’s going to reject the angel, and essentially she’s going to shoot it before it appears, as an idea of returning to sender, and the box of bones is this idea that death was going to be the outcome for one of these two characters, whether it was the woman or the angel, and then that scenario with the final shots that she was able to choose her own fate.”

This installation is about more than the right to choose for oneself. It is an exploration of self for EGOR who was raised in the Catholic faith.
“I had already been on a theme of Marian-related things back in 2023 because I had grown up really Catholic,” she said. “I’d come away with a hard rejection of it, and then in 2023 I was coming into this spiritual change where I was kind of readopting what I had already known, what I had grown up with, with the spirituality that I’ve found in my adulthood and what works for me. One of those aspects was that I still felt a strong connection to the Virgin Mary.
“The Annunciation was one that I kind of keep coming back to. This idea of this young woman having this very intense fate thrust upon her, especially outside of her own will and of course, like in her case, she accepted that with grace, whereas I feel I don’t see myself having responded the same way.”
The film was created using a mixture of analog and digital tech. Using photos and video shot on her phone, EGOR then printed the photos and altered them by and using a scanner to create the animation.
“I like working with my hands, and I don’t really like spending too much time on computers, or I don’t really know how to use a lot of software that well, but I do enjoy the process of doing stuff by hand,” she said. “So that’s pretty much been my solution to creating special effects and creating like a warped reality, and I like that. It looks unique, but ultimately, it’s just the means that I find the most interesting in both process and product.
“I hope people find it haunting. I guess ultimately, the show is about choosing your own fate. Everything else aside, I think that’s the main takeaway from it.”
***
“An Angel Will Appear” by EGOR (Eilish Gormley) is on exhibit until Feb. 23 in the Focus Gallery of the Bush Barn Art Center, 600 Mission St. S.E., in Salem. Her work can also be found on www.eilish.art or on Instagram at @egor_or_not.
“
Conversation