Harry Gould Harvey IV
Presupposition of Saint Anne
Harry Gould Harvey IV’s Presupposition of Saint Anne presents a dyad of finely detailed drawings housed inside a hand-built white oak frame. It constructs a vivid scene that assembles image, text, and collage with found framing material, evoking reliquaries and religious shrines. Juxtaposing two modes of depicting a church, the left drawing, in full color, features church spires rendered through an abstract architectural design, licked by the suggestion of flames. The right drawing, in black and white, is moodier and more gothically ornamented, with cloud-like charcoal smudges that fill the air. The striking pair recalls the 1982 destruction of Fall River’s Notre Dame de Lourdes by fire, sparked by a workman’s blowtorch.The wooden frame features two spires that echo the churches’ construction. The destructive power of human failure and natural elements stand in contrast with the aesthetic pleasure and repair that artmaking can generate. In this work Harvey continues his fantastical explorations of ecological trauma and resilience. Blurring distinctions of display and narrative, his work transforms the ruins of American industry into devotional objects, suggesting the possibility of transcendence out of collapse. Presupposition of Saint Anne speaks to post-industrial ruin, working class suffering, and the possibility of redemption. Harvey’s unorthodox sculptural frames heighten the aesthetic impact of skillful draughtsmanship. Taken together, Harvey’s work—both in creating distinctive objects and collaborative spaces—model how artmaking can offer ways of communing even amid collapse.
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.