ALTERNATE HORIZONS
YIRAN JIA & NICO PEARLEYES
Yiran Jia is an illustrator whose wonderfully weird creations offer portals into dark worlds that borrow from horror and sci-fi genres. With a background in graphic design, she graduated with an MFA in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2020. As a self-confessed introvert, her fantastical alternate realms offer a retreat from mundane reality. "I spend a lot of time by myself just imagining things," she explains, " I think the reason why I am drawn to fantastical subjects is the books I read, film and video games I like."
Solaris | 2020
The Martian Chronicles | 2021
With a passion for books, most of Yiran’s work is inspired by literary landscapes, she views her illustrations as an extension of reading through which she can expand the imagination of her audience. Despite her expressive style, Yiran considers herself a formalist. “I take form and techniques far more seriously than meaning,” she told Cluster, “I love playing around with strong and dynamic composition to achieve an uncanny and spooky effect in my works.“
Cancer Cell Proliferation |2021
Working between haptic and digital methods, Yiran dabbles in a number of different mediums. “My favourite traditional mediums are pen and ink, woodcut and etching. Digitally, I do my line work in Photoshop,” she added, though she often uses a combination. Sometimes, Yiran’s ideas come to her in dreams, which explains their eerie quality; whether it’s a dense forest or a skeletal still-life, her other-worldly visions are honed by a gothic sensibility. Recently, Yiran was part of an online group show at Gristle Art Gallery, where she exhibited etching, wood engraving and drawing.
Synchronicity | 2021
Likewise, the illustrations of Nicolas Pearleyes transport the viewer into alternate dimensions that cross-reference sci-fi, surrealism and psychedelia. A self-taught artist, it was the desire for self-expression that brought Nicolas to illustration. “I had the feeling that I had things inside of me that wanted to live their lives on the outside,” he explains, “the natural way to do so ws through colours and shapes.” His varied influences, from European comic artists such as Moebius, Caza and Hergé to modernist painters like Hopper and Magritte, are demonstrated in his unique stylistic blend.
For Nicolas, fantasy, surrealism and sci-fi are tools to explore the underbelly of reality, delving into dimensions that many shy away from; the weird, mysterious, unfamiliar. “I see world-building as a way to re-conceptualise things,” he told Cluster, “I like to think of illustration as a way to philosophise without words.” In his piece ‘Wild Systems’ two cheetahs stand before a vast desert plane as a third seems to morph into globular, liquid-like forms, floating into the distance like the tail end of a question mark; what if , the piece seems to ask, reality is not quite as it seems?
The Wanderer | 2020
Wild Systems | 2020
Before getting started on a new piece, Nicolas lets each idea gestate in his mind until it is fully matured. “I once read that art opens up spaces within us that we weren’t aware of,” he told us, “if I can achieve that through my work I will be satisfied.” After some sketching, he refines the piece with acrylics, touching it up with Indian ink or coloured pencils. Though he often works from photos, he finds that imagination almost always takes over. “It’s great to be a part of this artistic community,” he said of Cluster, “I’ve enjoyed exchanging with others, gaining insight into the industry and having my work seen. Currently, Nicolas is working on a painting series that illustrates how ideas shape our understanding of things around us, our environment.
In a practice akin to that of a novelist’s, Yiran and Nicolas take on the challenge of world-building with confidence and finely-tuned attention to detail, and in doing so offer portals that reveal the expanded horizons inside us all.
Work by both Yiran Jia and Nicolas Peareyes can be viewed on the Cluster Illustration platform
and purchased through our Cluster Illustration Online Shop.
Thank you for reading,
Stephanie Gavan & Cluster Team.