Installation view, "Net"

The sprawling, scrawl-covered scroll, Net, is inspired by Richard Wright’s poem
I Have Seen Black Hands. It is developed from years of vain effort to illustrate Wright’s poem. The difficulty of its illustration is inherent in the first line and repeated in the first line of each stanza – "… I have seen black hands, millions and millions of them…." Efforts to interpret the poem visually – treating the images of each line as the script for a movie – succeeded in placing the poem in its historical and political context but fell short of the poem’s ability to span both time, cause and place.

Installation view, detail of "Net" scroll

The net result functions as metaphorical rather than literal illustration. It is a pebble dropped into the pond of the viewer’s mind crating ripples of memories and associative experiences. The analogy is borrowed from Alan Watts’ evaluation of haiku, the Japanese short poetic form that Wright pursued avidly, producing thousands towards the end of his life. Many of Wright’s haiku evoke the strength of the human spirit while reminding of the fragility of human existence. Certain titles of supporting studies for Net are taken from lines of Wright’s haiku.

Net, as a metaphor, both in title and image, is open to multiple interpretations. A net is a gain, a snare, a cloth, a system. In the scroll Net the viewer may find allusions to community, struggle, rebellion, genealogy, life, growth and death. Water is a key reference within Net. The central portion against the floor, Pond, represents the Middle Passage. On one flank is Rain evoking the rainstorm’s potential to make fertile or destroy. On the other flank is Stream suggesting both a vast river and its many tributaries or a tree and thus growth and family. Joining Pond is Fount, this is the scroll’s beginning, yet it is based on the poem’s ending that speaks of the spirit of rebellion as a process of growth. Joining Stream at the end of the scroll is Dew; the visual material of the entire work is collected here and – as the morning dew – suggests a beginning.

Window Weave, 1999, mixed media 

Quilted Funk, 1999, mixed media

Countering the monumentality of Net are the mixed-media color miniatures. Busy, cacophonous, flashy and excessive they celebrate life. The are visual Carnivales. These works capture the creative spirit of Black hands by honoring the tradition of quiltmaking. They pay homage to both American history and African heritage. Their titles and the visual bounce of their compositions are tributes to African American music and dance. The crowded compositions of these works and their mix of disparate patterns are based on the polyrhythmic, multidominant design aesthetics of African textiles. This blending of elements is intended to capture the community of the African diaspora – that is to say, all the peoples of the world.

Curator's Statement

Installation view, "Blacksmith's Hammer 1" and "Fires and Fans"

In Net and Other Narratives, Kevin Harris presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the world in which he lives. This vision encompasses both the stark, black-and-white, representational drawings in graphite on paper seen in the Gallery, and the bright, colorful, abstract collages on view in the Board Room. Shifting between here-and-now to then-and-there to maybe-someday, the vision expands and contracts, focusing now on some little detail, now on the overall impression. The smaller works, actually studies done in preparation for the large, central work, act as windows into it, simplifying and isolating individual elements of the immense, complex hanging scroll that dominates the center of the room.

Installation view, "Fist", "Snap", and detail of "Net"

The artist’s own statement explores some of the specific issues and narratives that he intended the main work to carry. He writes of a net "a gain, a snare, a cloth, a system. In the scroll Net the viewer may find allusions to community, struggle, rebellion, genealogy, life, growth and death." What he does not say is that much of the scroll is, in fact, rolled up, hidden from view. Although all 55 feet of the scroll are covered with densely detailed, painstakingly conceived drawings, it is possible to see only part of it. The rest, like the life of a person, like the history of a people, exists and affects what is seen, but can only be intuited by those who only observe.

Impression Funk, mixed media, 1999

Kevin Harris is a tenured professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and also teaches at St. Claire Community College in Dayton, Ohio. In addition to numerous solo and group exhibitions, he has contributed illustrations to several books, and been invited to speak at museums, schools, and churches throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio. Brought to our attention by his cousin, Professor of Systematic Theology Josiah Young, Harris is a serious, dedicated, and thoughtful artist whose works at once celebrate the culture of African-America, and illuminate the difficult, oppressive historical context in which that culture came to be. His compelling, complex visual responses to that context are ultimately hopeful, inviting us to contemplate the past as a way to understand the shifting, growing, struggling-to-emerge present and future.

Deborah Sokolove
Curator, Dadian Gallery  

The artists who created the works of art shown on this site own the copyrights to them.
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send comments or questions about the gallery to the curator at:
dsokolove@wesleyseminary.edu

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