The age of watching. A journey from voyager to voyeur.
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I meditate on the notion of trees, plants as sentient beings. In my work I seek to 'expose the hidden’ within nature, to introduce new ways of seeing. As you may have read, the latest scientific research indicates trees have capabilities well beyond previous reckoning such as using memory and recognising colour. Chemical sharing interspecies, counting, long distance warning systems and community disease management are just a few of the practical tools plants have. They have been here longer than us. It seems our own predecessors were more attuned to the nature of nature than we generally are today. Druids, Tohunga and the like have sensibilities that outdo our present understanding of the plant kingdom. Science is renaming some of this knowledge. Science is gaining renewed respect among communities that derive their culture from a more 'original', situational and perhaps earthbound guidance. The 'Tree of Life' as an influential principle stems from wisdom gained in commune with plants. Through meditation or medication it has become a vibrant source of reflection all over the world thus the 'Tree of Life' is ubiquitous, throughout all of human's culture. Representing interconnectedness of all things the 'Tree of Life' grows among us as a beacon for respect, of humility and wonder. A metaphor for community strength and hope. From childhood I have been fascinated by plants and the way they move in front of us. Sometimes animated to a high level sometimes simply statically radiant. I have planted many, many trees, food plants and flowers and as a field officer in the conservation department I worked restoring habitat. My lifelong affinity with plant-life inspires an awe for nature that I translate into art. I hope my work entertains you and I hope it triggers a new way of seeing our allies. Oxygen, shelter, food, fuel, medicine are just a few of their gifts. Start to expand this idea and we get wooden spoons, rubber tyres, toilet paper, clothing, socks, chairs, tables, art materials, picture frames, shoes, alcohol, coffee, musical instruments, paper, houses, cardboard, bridges, rope, boats, sails and it goes on. All given freely along with the air we need to breathe. The air we need to breathe. I thought that was worth repeating. We can in honestly say "In Plants We Trust" 
TIn 2014 I spent time in the Amazon, Maynas province, Peru. I met a Bora tribesman by the name of Bermudas. When he found I am an artist he offered me the most profound gift of Llanchama. Llanchama is the inner bark of the Ojé tree and is pounded into a robust cloth for clothing and headwear, the Bora then paint, embroider and adorn it with feathers. I had this large two metres by almost two metre rectangular sheet, a rolled up cylinder of barkcloth deep in the jungle. When it was time to leave some weeks later I put the cylinder on my shoulder, my pack on my back and began hiking. I had a two hour walk on a muddy track through the forest to reach a small beach where i set about waiting for a passing canoe. This tiny spot is a regular spot so it was only four hours 'til a dugout arrived to drop a couple of people off. The prized cylinder on my shoulder we paddled to the next 'station' where I boarded a small and narrow motor-powered canoe. The driveshafts are on gimbals and tilt in and out of the water to propel the canoe along quickly with a small propellor. Safely disembarking with the barkcloth aloft I hailed a motorbike and rode into Iquitos. I was heading home to Aotearoa NZ so spent the night in Iquitos to wash and get up the next day, board a car to catch a small plane to Lima, the capital. A week in Lima and the cloth is still rolled up, clean and bright about to be put in the overhead locker to Chile, transferred in Santiago to another overhead locker on a penultimate jet through to customs in Auckland NZ. One more flight onto Wellington where my friend Rachael collected me standing proudly with my Llanchama roll still sitting there on my shoulder. A car trip to my house and the epic transportation of Amazonian Bark cloth to Wellington NZ came to an end. I waited for five years to understand what I was doing with it in my studio, why it had such presence and how I could treat it with the dignity and relevance it deserved. I began to paint my plant-centric pattern in recognition of its provenance. Following the tradition in embroidering the cloth I have embarked on a mission to complete each leaf and to define the coloured seed spots. The leaves form a musical score that rises and sinks in intensity. Representing staves annotated with plant life the music surges in waves rhythmically attuned to the resonating forest. Insect noises like laser zaps punctuate with buzzing, whirring, beeping and honking. All kinds of rustling and crashing one can imagine form an intense fabric of seemingly deafening sounds. There is a consistency, a union of disharmony with harmony. Strangely, sleep in the jungle is supported, encouraged by the cacophony and the days enlivened and enhanced by myriad dissonance. I understand Bermudas and his family and tribe are cared for by the jungle, provided for. In return they diligently care for the forest, their carer. Their original life force. The progress is slow, slow and steady. Much like the journey across the planet from Amazonas to Aotearoa. The next stage will be stretching it over a frame.   For the Love of Andy - Phoenix palm, Swarovski crystal, harakeke, acrylic
In progress - the triptych called 'Anti Warhol' consisting of three copies of the portrait. Each portrait will be as close as possible to the other two, rendered in crystal, palm and harakeke. The harakeke (NZ Flax) wig will over time become blond. Warhol was famed for reproducing instant, fast copies of his work to create a mass market. Here I am recreating his portrait in a meticulous and contrastingly 'time dependent' and abstracted form. "Andy Warhol looks a scream. Hang him on my wall." DB  For the Love of Mickey - Phoenix palm, Swarovski, acrylic, leather
 In recent times Aotearoa NZ came through a time of restrictions due to the Covid19 pandemic. During this short period many signs of change appeared around us; increased birdlife in the CBD, silence in the absence of traffic, whales and an Ocean Sunfish took advantage of a quietened harbour, reconnection with each other, using less, needing less, wasting less, pollution was at an all time low.
There was a silver-lining to this lockdown. It appears we can pull back, slow ourselves, re-focus and enjoy a more realistic pace. We realised we don't need the hurried and frantic 'grasping-for-more' kind of life to which we are habituated. Condolences to those that lost loved ones and to those that have suffered as a result of Covid19 virus. |
James Harcourt On occasion I will drop something here. A new project or a painting. |
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