Harrison Walker

Harrison Walker was born in Huntsville, AL where he received his BFA in studio art at the University of Alabama Huntsville. Walker received his MFA in Photography at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia, PA where he currently lives. Walker is interested in imagery that references the otherworldly and the perception of time and their relation to the physical and chemical reactions in printmaking and photographic techniques. Recently, Walker has shown at Soho Photo, New York, NY; City Hall, Philadelphia, PA; American University, Washington, D.C.; and Pop Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.

 

Artist Statement: Portals

The only way to truly understand is through experience.

I create prints and/as objects that embody the physical layering of time through tactile processes that evoke feelings of lived experiences. By working intuitively through the process of search and discovery, I employ the visual alchemy of printmaking, drawing, and photographic materials to create forms that evoke an experiential and emotional viewing—a sense of awe; a sense of the sublime; a sense of absence and loss.

My work explores connections with time, memory, and history through imagery that references the otherworldly and the non-present. I am interested in the way we perceive and consider time throughout the span of our life. How do we think about, navigate, manipulate, and represent time? Our experiences and memories affect how we think about the past, present, and future; they affect the decisions we make and the associations we have with visual imagery.

Portals is an investigation of chemistry made of fifty-nine variations of a repeated form – showing similarities and differences of color and surface through printmaking and photographic techniques. Similar to a Rorschach test, Portals is intended to explore how the viewer perceives variations in texture, surface, color, image, and time. Most of the prints in this series are stable and will last many years, however, there are certain variations that will continue to change over the course of time.