Matthew Harris & Tim Rowan by Erskine, Hall & Coe

Matthew Harris

Tim Rowan

Front cover: Tim Rowan Vessel, 2012 33 x 33 x 33 cm (TR-0012)

Matthew Harris (b. 1966) Matthew Harris’ work on paper has been shown in many group and solo exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe, Japan and the US. As drawings they are made to be seen in their own right but also to act as starting points or ‘cartoons’ for larger works that are made using dyed and painted cloth. Working primarily from things seen, the drawings recall, interpret and explore imagery, improvising

Matthew Harris

Tim Rowan

around a given theme. Matthew Harris lives and works in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

All works by Tim Rowan are woodfired native clay, except the teabowls and cups, which are woodfired stoneware.

Tim Rowan (b. 1967) Tim Rowan was born in New York City and grew

All works by Matthew Harris are mixed media on linen bound Japanese paper.

up in Connecticut along the shore of Long Island

The exhibition will be fully illustrated on our website www.erskinehallcoe.com/exhibitions/matthew-harris-tim-rowan-2013/

receiving a BFA from The State University of New

Tim Rowan works photographed by Michael Harvey Matthew Harris works photographed by Peter Stone printed at SPM Print design by fivefourandahalf

two years to apprentice with ceramic artist Ryuichi

Sound.

You are invited to the Private View Tuesday 19 February, 6-8pm Exhibition continues 20 February - 20 March

His art education began during college,

York at New Paltz before journeying to Japan for Kakurezaki. Upon his return he worked briefly in studios in Massachusetts and New York before receiving his MFA from The Pennsylvania State University. In 2000 he established his kiln and studio deep in the woods of the Hudson Valley.

15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4SP +44 (0) 20 7491 1706 | mail@erskinehallcoe.com | www.erskinehallcoe.com

I start by making a black ink drawing as quickly

to front, playing with the relationship of one shape

and spontaneously as possible, bringing together

to another, folding and manipulating, my aim is

and condensing a number of visual references

to bring about something new and unexpected.

and ideas. This drawing is designed purely as a

Infinite variety from the same source.

beginning, providing the bare bones of the images to come.

The image is pieced together with individual fragments held in place with pins before being

As a musician might improvise around a given

wrapped with a waxed thread. An image

theme, my hastily drawn ink image becomes a

temporarily bound and held, always with the

starting point or template for a series of images,

potential for change.

each an improvisation or variation on the original. I have very little idea of how each series of images

Archive series:

might evolve beyond wishing to explore something

The starting point for these drawings was an

I have seen and recorded at some point, perhaps

archival box full of Japanese paper ephemera.

a group of shapes or a quality of colour or mark.

A collection of torn and squashed chop-stick

The making process is then very much about

packets, ancient paper prayers, creased woodblock

grappling with an image, of digging to find and

prints and splashed and stained inky scribbles.

recall something and of responding to that which is thrown up.

After Shide & Shide Fragment ‘Shide’ are the zig-zags of folded paper that hang

Working with pre-marked and prepared paper,

at Shinto shrines to mark the boundary between

using fragments sometimes carefully chosen but

the sacred and profane.

more often randomly picked, I work from the original ink template. By tracing and retracing areas of a drawing, working upside down and back Matthew Harris ‘Archive’ III, 2012 35 x 59 cm (MH-0013)

Matthew Harris

The works in this exhibition have all been completed

physically or intellectually feeling the forms. I work

over the past two years. They are made, primarily,

on many pieces at once to enable me to become lost in

from native clay. This is direct from the earth and

the process - freely moving from one form to another.

unprocessed as opposed to industrially manufactured

There is a complete acceptance in the process. Faith.

clay bodies. The forms are slowly constructed from

That is the guide. We work together, informing and

layers, built up over days and weeks then carved.

reacting to each other.

They are fired for seven days and nights in a wood fuelled kiln. No glaze is applied; the surface textures

There are four distinct series in this body of work.

and colours are the result of the interaction of the

The sculptures are the most ambiguous and poetic

clay, fly-ash, coals and fire.

for me. Drawn from a multitude of sources, industrial detritus, tools and abstracting the fragments of a

I am constantly building on previous work – just as

vessel.

individual pieces evolve in the process of making, the body of work as a whole does as well. Most of

The vessels are rooted in more of a pottery vernacular.

my work develops from the process of making, firing,

They are there to nourish. We are comforted. We

and arranging. While I may have images in my head

have a sense of place.

of some specific things I have seen, for instance the remnants of an old quarry derrick abandoned in the

The cups are individual intimate moments. Each one

woods near my home, once I start making, new forms

is a separate story. Held. Caressed. Nourishment.

emerge. There is a search and discovery.

Life-affirming.

I am particularly drawn to objects in various states

The boxes may be urns. Shelters. Forced to touch

of decay – either through use over time such as tools

in order to experience the inside. Containment.

or the effects of the “elements”. Everything is in a

Security. Protect me. What is revealed?

constant state of flux. These are merely markers of a particular time and place.

The blurry space between past and present, nature and technology, life and death. That is the interest

It is only when I am fully engaged in the making – that

for me.

the forms present themselves. There is an intuitive process of discovery – of wondering, of noticing, of

Tim Rowan

Tim Rowan Vessel, 2012 35.6 x 33 x 33 cm (TR-0013)

This page: Tim Rowan Sculpture, 2012 22.9 x 73.7 x 15.2 cm (TR-0005)

Opposite: Matthew Harris ‘Archive’ I, 2012 35 x 59 cm (MH-0011)

Tim Rowan This page: Sculpture, 2012 40.6 x 45.7 x 30.5 cm (TR-0024)

Opposite: Sculpture, 2012 33 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm (TR-0016)

This page: Tim Rowan Vessel, 2012 27.9 x 33 x 30.5 cm (TR-0014)

Opposite: Matthew Harris ‘Scattered Rhythm’ VII, 2012 30 x 42 cm (MH-0023)

This page: Tim Rowan Sculpture, 2012 15.2 x 38.1 x 12.7 cm (TR-0019)

Opposite: Matthew Harris ‘Scattered Rhythm’ III, 2012 30 x 42 cm (MH-0019)

This page: Matthew Harris ‘Shide Fragment’ VI, 2012 29 x 21 cm (MH-0032)

Opposite: Tim Rowan Vessel, 2012 35.6 x 27.9 x 30.5 cm (TR-0007)

Tim Rowan Box, 2012 20.3 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm (TR-0025)

Matthew Harris ‘Shide Fragment’ III, 2012 29 x 21 cm (MH-0029)

Matthew Harris This page: ‘Shide Fragment’ VIII, 2012 29 x 21 cm (MH-0034)

Opposite: ‘After Shide’ III, 2012 22 x 28 cm (MH-0026)

Tim Rowan: Vessel, 2012 25.4 x 22.9 x 20.3 cm (TR-0008)

Matthew Harris ‘Shide Fragment’ VII, 2012 29 x 21 cm (MH-0033)

Tim Rowan Sculpture, 2012 22.9 x 40.6 x 12.7 cm (TR-0017)

Teabowl, 2012 10.2 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm (TR-0038)

Cup, 2012 7.6 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm (TR-0032)

Box, 2011 20.3 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm (TR-0004)

Cup, 2012 7.6 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm (TR-0035)

Cup, 2012 7.6 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm (TR-0036)

Teabowl, 2012 8.9 x 11.4 x 10.2 cm (TR-0040)

Cup, 2012 7.6 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm

(TR-0028)

(TR-0029)

(TR-0034)

(TR-0031)

Tim Rowan Box, 2012 25.4 x 22.9 x 17.8 cm (TR-0006)

This page: Matthew Harris ‘Shide Fragment’ I, 2012 29 x 21 cm (MH-0027)

Back cover: Matthew Harris ‘Archive’ II, 2012 35 x 59 cm (MH-0012)