Harry Gould Harvey IV
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Harry Gould Harvey IV’s painstakingly crafted, materially-charged work invokes environmental toxicity and historical violence against working class communities resulting from US industry, empire, and commerce. He combines close attention to how things are made—an approach rooted in traditions of hand labor—with an otherworldly visual language that melds text and image. Harvey’s lettering and drawings are as intricate in detail as his custom wooden frames, which are repurposed from destroyed Gilded Age mansions, dilapidated factories, gutted Gothic churches, and fallen trees. Deeply rooted within his local context and its unique dialects, Harvey transforms the remains of personal and collective catastrophe into resonant, spiritual objects. Artmaking serves a healing purpose for Harvey, who still lives where he was born and raised: the post-industrial city of Fall River, MA, and Narragansett Bay. The legacy of generational exposure to dangerous metals in the service of wealth informs his approach, as he works to reveal how sickness can also serve as a site for transcendence and resistance.
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Harry Gould Harvey IV’s painstakingly crafted, materially-charged work invokes environmental toxicity and historical violence against working class communities resulting from US industry, empire, and commerce. He combines close attention to how things are made—an approach rooted in traditions of hand labor—with an otherworldly visual language that melds text and image. Harvey’s lettering and drawings are as intricate in detail as his custom wooden frames, which are repurposed from destroyed Gilded Age mansions, dilapidated factories, gutted Gothic churches, and fallen trees. Deeply rooted within his local context and its unique dialects, Harvey transforms the remains of personal and collective catastrophe into resonant, spiritual objects. Artmaking serves a healing purpose for Harvey, who still lives where he was born and raised: the post-industrial city of Fall River, MA, and Narragansett Bay. The legacy of generational exposure to dangerous metals in the service of wealth informs his approach, as he works to reveal how sickness can also serve as a site for transcendence and resistance.