'brother Love' - Felix Harris, Pascal Harris, Hayley Theyers - 17-29 September 2020.

Following the tradition of group exhibitions by siblings (see various exhibitions by Denise Durkin & Phillipa Durkin), GMG brings Felix's younger brother Pascal Harris into the fold for this exhibition, 'Brother Love'. The exhibition includes a photographic installation by Pascal Harris, five 2020 paintings by Felix Harris, and some mixed-media works - photographs by Pascal Harris and Hayley Theyers, painted on by Felix.

Pascal Harris artist info:
Pascal Harris was born into an artistic family, the youngest son of Jeffrey Harris and Joanna Margaret Paul. He studied music at Otago University and the Royal College of Music, London and has since been pursuing a career as a concert pianist and teacher.
After graduating Pascal spent several years in Japan where he developed an additional passion for photography.
He had his first solo show at Pico-Pico cafe in Tokyo in 2013 and since returning to New Zealand has participated in group shows as well as continuing to play concerts regularly. Pascal has released one CD of Schubert's Impromptus and has published one book about his mother - Light on Things.

Felix Harris artist info

Pascal & Felix Harris - photo supplied

Hayley Theyers is an Auckland-based photographic artist and will feature in a group exhibition at Photospace Gallery in May-June 2021. hayleytheyersphotography.nz

Brother Love
 
The small black and white photos, I printed out in my friend Ryan’s darkroom. I have long longed to be able to use a darkroom regularly, but it has taken years for my wish to be granted. I would go to my friend’s studio once a week and spend an hour or two in the dark. Out of the dark my memories came, sweet and precious memories. Now, they were alive again and I could hold them in the palm of my hand. Some came out darker than I intended, some lighter. But I relished the expressive possibilities of chance. Laid out on the wall like this they become a small cosmos.
A small cosmos of my memories, like distant stars. 
 
My brother Felix came to live with me in my two-bedroom apartment in Auckland for a few months last year. It was a strange feeling, the first time in 23 years that we were living together. 
 
I had suggested to him a while ago that it might be a nice idea if he painted on my photos. Now that we were living together it was a perfect opportunity to put this in to practice. I had suggested the idea without thinking much of it, so I was surprised at how far the outcome surpassed my expectations. My photo and Felix’s painting became one artwork. Our worlds came together. I felt that we could be proud of each other.
 
The title ‘Brother Love’ includes some irony as Felix and I, coming from a dysfunctional family, have had a difficult relationship since childhood, but through this collaboration I felt we could express a kind of ‘Brother Love’, a mutual under-standing of the difficulty of life and a search for consolation and meaning in art. 
 
- Pascal Harris, September 2020

Artist statement - Felix Harris

'He invokes images that focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude and anxiety.'
- Eckhart Tolle on poet/novelist Rilke.
 
Puzzling World is an attraction in Wanaka. I sat there in the cafe while my ex girlfriend and her son went inside. She had made me a list previously that included 'freedom from guilt' among other shopping items. I hoped to acquire it. 

After we broke up (missing the wild central) I learnt that grief is just a passage not a place to stay and other lessons from the house of the dead.
 
Eckhart Tolle speaks about forgiveness, quoting Jesus, 'Before you enter the temple, forgive.' You have a radiant essence here, nothing can touch it.
 
I enjoyed collaborating with my brother Pascal Harris. 'Brother Love' feels like the beginning of something wonderful.
 
- Felix Harris, September 2020