carole harris at hill gallery
REPOST: Journey’s in Place
Happy one-year anniversary to REAL ART DETROIT! The response to this newsletter has been remarkable. I can’t do this without all of you fabulous makers, gallerists, supporters. Thank you!
I was downtown last Friday to view a show for this week’s newsletter and found that gallery, as well as several others, closed for the 4th of July weekend. Since there were no subscribers when this review originally posted and Carole just wrapped another stellar exhibition at Hill, why not repost RAD’s first review most of y’all probably never saw anyway. Good thing because I wasn’t in my verbal groove yet. I did edit this a bit.
Repost from June 4th, 2021:
Carole Harris’ recent work is a dramatic first foot in the door as Hill Gallery’s airy, pristine space showcases her vivid and meditative pages from a deeply reflective period of physical isolation and emotional travel.
Blue Then Green is heavily layered with soaked Mulberry paper, worked in an old Korean technique called Joomchi, pressed, pulled and sutured to tiers of fabric allowing a mere glimpse of a delicate scalloped pattern or a peek of pink to show through the torn and wrinkled skin.
Embedded’s pattern is more evenly distributed in a warm to hot palette. The outer layer is stretched so thin the paper is almost transparent. Upon close inspection of any of Harris’ pieces tiny details emerge and delight. Here Harris has chosen bits of metallic thread to weave into her story.
Beyond the Surface’s spare layers manage strong energy through a shock of red while reading like a soft, patched favorite pair of jeans. Flowers for Breonna is a complex piece using a charged palette of deep red bleeding through soft chartreuse green. Tiny stiches form shapes that draw the eye to further patterns secreted underneath. The black commands reverence while providing a visual anchor.
Abstraction is difficult in any medium. To bend fiber into an artist’s emotional story and get it to sing in a strong composition is a feat. Harris uses dangling threads or a torn bit of fabric to break out of the confines of a recognizable shape while holding her pages securely in their space. She layers fabric and paper like paint, exposing texture, color and pattern. To really get the impact of these pieces, they need to be seen in person because the brilliance is in the fastidious detail while their ability to pull at your heart strings can only happen when you look these in the eye.
All pieces are Mulberry paper, threads and fabric
Carole Harris’ Journey’s In Place ran through June 30, 2021 at
Hill Gallery 407 W. Brown Street, Birmingham, MI
*images are mine
SHOWS OPEN THIS WEEKEND These are current, not from last year!
Thought it was just as good a show as the one from a year ago.
An excellent look at a fantastic show--hope you got to see Part II the last month or so (believe it closed last weekend). Thanks for these.