The
ODD Gallery is pleased to present A GATHERING:, a
new series of sculptures and emroidered works by Halifax-based
artist David R. Harper.
Over the past few
years, Harper has been developing his art practice and exhibition
record at an increasingly prolific rate, resulting in an evolving
series of projects that often take the form of taxidermied
animals, hide and detailed hand-stitched embroidery. Harper’s
replicas and representations of animals, including the human
one, suggest a new wilderness that is equally human and beastly
in its design.
For his ODD Gallery
exhibition, Harper presents a collection of five truncated
deer sculptures, each with a portrait of a Victorian character
sewn into its abdomen, and two embroidered fur wall hangings.
The works are at once sensually captivating and disturbing.
Their recognizable forms, plush textures and mannered poses
radiate a sense of curiosity and quiet reverence—these
are forest animals, the sculptures remind us—and yet
a sense of unease is palpable. Evoking issues of colonialism,
social conformity, and issues of class and gender, the embroidered
elements of this exhibition add a particularly distressing
visual connotation to our ongoing barter between nature and
civilisation.
And yet, A Gathering:
succeeds in moving beyond mere commentary on the adversarial
effects of the human civilising impulse. While this exhibition
reveals the suspicion that our ideas of nature, as well as
our representations of it, are vital components in our problematic
relationship to the environment, the works nonetheless act
to embrace art’s most fundamental promises—seduction,
mystery and beauty. A Gathering: acts to re-discover
and re-imagine the natural world as an authentic, relevant
foundation of inspiration, artistic inquiry and cultural understanding.
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Artist’s
Statement
“I am fascinated by representations of nature in mediated
environments, and I am particularly interested in ways in
which people bring wilderness landscapes into domestic interiors,
using flora and fauna, bouquets and bearskin rugs to amplify
their personal identification with nature. Similarly, I lift,
alter, and combine segments of the natural world with objects
that are commonly associated with domestic spaces.”
--DRH
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DAVID R. HARPER
completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College
of Art and Design in 2006, and will be pursuing an MFA degree
from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in th Fall
of 2009. His drawings, sculptures and embroidered work have
been staged in recent solo exhibitions at Stride Gallery (Calgary),
Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax), Gallery 1313 (Toronto) and
Galerie Sans Nom (Moncton). He has also exhibited work in
significant group shows at the Art Gallery of Mississauga,
the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Cape Breton Centre
for Crafts and Design.
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