Jessica Harrison
国籍：英国 · 驻场时间：2019年
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Title of lecture
Back to Front and Inside Out
Artist statement & description of work
Working with a variety of materials from porcelain and paint to marble and digital collage, Harrison draws on both the traditional and contemporary in subject, material and process in her sculptural practice, often repurposing traditions and remaking objects, images or ideas to address contemporary themes of social values and knowledge systems.
Her research is process led, hinged on a fundamental fallibility of the body and types of knowledge that can be generated through mistakes and inexperience in both making, understanding and methods of sharing. Using found objects and scavenged images, Harrison explores how mistakes and misreadings can accumulate, corrupt and shape ideas, thought and ultimately physical space.
It is this line of research that led her to work with ceramic, a material that she had no formal training in. Everything Harrison has learnt so far about working with clay has been through error and failure, through a lack of knowledge of the proper way to work with this material, glazes and firing. Following mistakes, and allowing error to direct much of what she makes has thus shaped her practice since she began working with ceramic, however this lack of knowledge has become less of a hindrance and more of a research methodology.
This ignorance of the rules of ceramic has allowed an alternative approach to traditional materials and techniques, led mainly by doing things the wrong way round. If you do not know the rules, it is difficult to be bound by them.
By following error in both concept, craft, and communication, her research often looks to the interaction between the maker and the viewer and the overlaps as well as the miscommunication that can occur between these roles. This is particularly interesting in terms of the fallibility of observation in relation to the digital/virtual space and its dispersal into what is still currently considered the ‘real/physical’ space. This gap between what is considered real and what is considered virtual is becoming less clear as technological advancements in everyday life accelerate alongside the dissemination of infinite images and information online. Hand in hand with this shift in knowledge systems, definitions of the body are also shifting and changing at an ever-increasing rate. The things Harrison makes explore a re-imagining of these definitions, as part coping mechanism, part learning strategy and part suggestion of an alternative shape to our perception of things.
To negotiate these spaces Harrison prefers to build by hand, opening up the making process to the viewer, the finished object becoming almost performative in the descriptive quality of the surface. Ceramic scaffolds interlace hand built objects and installations to describe the movement of the material both in making, drying and in firing, revealing gaps between knowledge and action, opening up a dialogue between maker and viewer that allows a way into subjects that those with a flawless finish do not have. It is at points of error that as a viewer it is possible to see the body of the maker, and as a maker, where it is possible (perhaps unintentionally) to allow yourself to be seen.
Biography
Jessica Harrison was born in St Bees, UK in 1982. She lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. Harrison graduated from Edinburgh University with a practice-based PhD in Sculpture in 2013, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In 2015 she was artist in residence at the European Ceramic Workcentre in the Netherlands, returning in 2017 to undertake a second residency.
In 2017 Harrison was commissioned by the Jerwood Charitable foundation to create an installation for the exhibition Jerwood Makers Open, which toured the UK in 2107 and 2018.
She has shown her work in exhibitions worldwide including The Precious Clay: Porcelain in Contemporary Art, Museum of Royal Worcester, UK; Dismaland, curated by Banksy, Weston-Super-Mare, UK; Broken, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh; FLASH, Galerie LJ, Paris; CERAMIX, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht in collaboration with the Sèvres, Cite de Céramique; Between Poles and Tides, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Figuriens Fortællinger, Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark; Urnen, European Ceramic Workcentre, Oisterwijk; Un Bal Masqué. XVIIE Sièle at art Contemporain, Le Chateau de Nyon; Sexy Ceramics, Keramiekmuseum Princesshof, Leeuwarden; and Body & Soul; contemporary international ceramics, Museum of Art and Design, New York.
Harrison’s work is represented in numerous international collections, including the Princesshof Ceramic Museum, Netherlands; the University of Edinburgh Art Collection, Scotland; Pallant House Gallery, UK; the Royal Scottish Academy, Scotland; and the New Art Gallery Walsall, UK; and numerous private collections worldwide. Her work was recently included in Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art, published by Phaidon.
Back to Front and Inside Out
Artist statement & description of work
Working with a variety of materials from porcelain and paint to marble and digital collage, Harrison draws on both the traditional and contemporary in subject, material and process in her sculptural practice, often repurposing traditions and remaking objects, images or ideas to address contemporary themes of social values and knowledge systems.
Her research is process led, hinged on a fundamental fallibility of the body and types of knowledge that can be generated through mistakes and inexperience in both making, understanding and methods of sharing. Using found objects and scavenged images, Harrison explores how mistakes and misreadings can accumulate, corrupt and shape ideas, thought and ultimately physical space.
It is this line of research that led her to work with ceramic, a material that she had no formal training in. Everything Harrison has learnt so far about working with clay has been through error and failure, through a lack of knowledge of the proper way to work with this material, glazes and firing. Following mistakes, and allowing error to direct much of what she makes has thus shaped her practice since she began working with ceramic, however this lack of knowledge has become less of a hindrance and more of a research methodology.
This ignorance of the rules of ceramic has allowed an alternative approach to traditional materials and techniques, led mainly by doing things the wrong way round. If you do not know the rules, it is difficult to be bound by them.
By following error in both concept, craft, and communication, her research often looks to the interaction between the maker and the viewer and the overlaps as well as the miscommunication that can occur between these roles. This is particularly interesting in terms of the fallibility of observation in relation to the digital/virtual space and its dispersal into what is still currently considered the ‘real/physical’ space. This gap between what is considered real and what is considered virtual is becoming less clear as technological advancements in everyday life accelerate alongside the dissemination of infinite images and information online. Hand in hand with this shift in knowledge systems, definitions of the body are also shifting and changing at an ever-increasing rate. The things Harrison makes explore a re-imagining of these definitions, as part coping mechanism, part learning strategy and part suggestion of an alternative shape to our perception of things.
To negotiate these spaces Harrison prefers to build by hand, opening up the making process to the viewer, the finished object becoming almost performative in the descriptive quality of the surface. Ceramic scaffolds interlace hand built objects and installations to describe the movement of the material both in making, drying and in firing, revealing gaps between knowledge and action, opening up a dialogue between maker and viewer that allows a way into subjects that those with a flawless finish do not have. It is at points of error that as a viewer it is possible to see the body of the maker, and as a maker, where it is possible (perhaps unintentionally) to allow yourself to be seen.
Biography
Jessica Harrison was born in St Bees, UK in 1982. She lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. Harrison graduated from Edinburgh University with a practice-based PhD in Sculpture in 2013, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In 2015 she was artist in residence at the European Ceramic Workcentre in the Netherlands, returning in 2017 to undertake a second residency.
In 2017 Harrison was commissioned by the Jerwood Charitable foundation to create an installation for the exhibition Jerwood Makers Open, which toured the UK in 2107 and 2018.
She has shown her work in exhibitions worldwide including The Precious Clay: Porcelain in Contemporary Art, Museum of Royal Worcester, UK; Dismaland, curated by Banksy, Weston-Super-Mare, UK; Broken, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh; FLASH, Galerie LJ, Paris; CERAMIX, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht in collaboration with the Sèvres, Cite de Céramique; Between Poles and Tides, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Figuriens Fortællinger, Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark; Urnen, European Ceramic Workcentre, Oisterwijk; Un Bal Masqué. XVIIE Sièle at art Contemporain, Le Chateau de Nyon; Sexy Ceramics, Keramiekmuseum Princesshof, Leeuwarden; and Body & Soul; contemporary international ceramics, Museum of Art and Design, New York.
Harrison’s work is represented in numerous international collections, including the Princesshof Ceramic Museum, Netherlands; the University of Edinburgh Art Collection, Scotland; Pallant House Gallery, UK; the Royal Scottish Academy, Scotland; and the New Art Gallery Walsall, UK; and numerous private collections worldwide. Her work was recently included in Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art, published by Phaidon.