SCULPTURE
SCULPTURE
PAINT & INK
PAINT & INK
PAINT & INK
CV
CV
CV
THE NATURE OF WANTING - ARTIST STATEMENT
‘The Nature of Wanting’ is a body of work that addresses the unsustainable consumption of the human race. As a species people continuously process resources of social, environmental and economic value with little regard for the future. Materials are extracted, refined and transformed into fleeting 'objects of desire'. Though a face-paced lifestyle only encourages a focus on the final product, their consumers have become detached from the process that created them. Resulting in a reduced appreciation between these 'objects of desire' and the methods used to create them. A disassociation that contributes to a wasteful attitude towards both labour and environmental resources.
This exhibition explores human body as a machine that seeks out and consumes through unsustainable resource gathering processes. Representing all 'objects of desire' is a small stepped pyramid that appears in several of the works. Whether through representation or suggestion, human presence provides context and narrative for this pyramid to generate discussion of humanity’s consumption habits.
THE NATURE OF WANTING - ARTIST STATEMENT
‘The Nature of Wanting’ is a body of work that addresses the unsustainable consumption of the human race. As a species people continuously process resources of social, environmental and economic value with little regard for the future. Materials are extracted, refined and transformed into fleeting 'objects of desire'. Though a face-paced lifestyle only encourages a focus on the final product, their consumers have become detached from the process that created them. Resulting in a reduced appreciation between these 'objects of desire' and the methods used to create them. A disassociation that contributes to a wasteful attitude towards both labour and environmental resources.
This exhibition explores human body as a machine that seeks out and consumes through unsustainable resource gathering processes. Representing all 'objects of desire' is a small stepped pyramid that appears in several of the works. Whether through representation or suggestion, human presence provides context and narrative for this pyramid to generate discussion of humanity’s consumption habits.
THE NATURE OF WANTING - ARTIST STATEMENT
‘The Nature of Wanting’ is a body of work that addresses the unsustainable consumption of the human race. As a species people continuously process resources of social, environmental and economic value with little regard for the future. Materials are extracted, refined and transformed into fleeting 'objects of desire'. Though a face-paced lifestyle only encourages a focus on the final product, their consumers have become detached from the process that created them. Resulting in a reduced appreciation between these 'objects of desire' and the methods used to create them. A disassociation that contributes to a wasteful attitude towards both labour and environmental resources.
This exhibition explores human body as a machine that seeks out and consumes through unsustainable resource gathering processes. Representing all 'objects of desire' is a small stepped pyramid that appears in several of the works. Whether through representation or suggestion, human presence provides context and narrative for this pyramid to generate discussion of humanity’s consumption habits.
Harrison Waed See
VALLEY OF COASTS AND BEASTS
EXHIBITED @ PAPER TRAILS BETEEN LION AND SWAN (CO-CURATED EXHIBITION) @ SCULTPTURE2025 (SINGAPORE); ARTSOURCE (WA)
Valley of Coasts and Beasts is an allegorical response to the geographical and historical intersections between the numerous sea-bound cities of the Asia-Pacific region. The flow and erosion of water are explored as metaphors for the movement of culture and influence made possible by seas, rivers and oceans. Through an integration of videogame tropes and graphic devices, See imagines a discordant scene reflecting the pluralistic, and at times incommensurate, nature of cross-cultural spaces; this nature is reflected in the subtle differences between each banner. It is the juxtaposition of videogame aesthetics with the materialities of textiles—specifically, banners, flags and tapestries—through which See depicts a tense duality of two horsemen. Neither horseman represents a particular culture; however, their duality is analogous to dualistic metanarratives, such as the East-vs-West binary, that often oversimplify past (and present) cross-cultural interactivity. Although these two figures dominate the landscape, the landscape simultaneously envelopes them in a constellation of subtler localised storytelling (or micronarratives). While parts of this constellation corroborate the horsemen’s dominance, others serve as alternative, or even contradictory counternarratives.
See review by Sam Beard, Dispatch Review.
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Harrison Waed See (2023–2024), Valley of Coasts and Beasts, Fabric ink, silk screen print, and archival digital print on synthetic fibre (380 gsm),138 x 103cm (each).
Photographs: Liang Xu / @liang.xu_dp
The series of paintings titled ‘Far-Away Island’ is a fictional island inhabited by five ‘peoples’ (green, red, orange, blue and purple) living, working and travelling between the island’s five respective provinces. These paintings piece together a fragmented and non-linear story of interconnecting trade, industry and conflict. The island’s mythology integrates videogame tropes into my approach to painting as a storytelling medium. As such, ‘Far-Away Island’ is conceived as a series of videogame screenshots that present a multiplicity of potential pathways, choices and determinations to follow. ‘Far-Away Island’ emerged in response to my experiences of cross-cultural collaboration with local and international artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. These collaborations were prompted by a curiosity about cultural difference, as well as an interest in mythology and reverence for myth’s ability to shape people’s views, attitudes and beliefs. The contemporary mythology developed in this series is directly informed by my encounters with plurality, incommensurability and divergence during cross-cultural collaboration through the period of my PhD research. To honour the collaborating artists who shared in encounters that directly informed specific works, their names feature in the extended titles of particular paintings—inspired by Francis Bacon’s 1953 painting, ‘Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X’. The title, ‘Far-Away Island’, is a reference to Australia as the culturally diverse, yet tension-filled, colonial context in which these collaborations took place. In this way, ‘Far-Away Island’ is also a mythological response to contemporary Australia—its histories, geographies and communities—that explores notions of cultural identity, hybridity and tensions inherent to multiculturalist spaces.
Photographs: Patricia Amorim
CAMPFIRE VALLEY
EXHIBITED AT ION II (IN OUR NATURE) GROUP EXHIBITION @ LOST EDEN CREATIVE (DWELLINGUP, WA)
'Campfire Valley' is the product of the artist’s recent practice-led doctoral research that explores dialogue between contemporary hybrid Australian cultural identities. Research that has caused See to reflect upon his own hybrid identity as he exchanges perspectives and experiences with other Australian artists; specifically artists of South-East Asian heritage. The result, a contemporary Australian mythology that gathers components from an ever-shifting landscape of his own restless European ancestry. An unstable site assembled from disparate cultural spaces united within a single chaotic parable.
Campfire Valley (2021), oil on board, 184cm (H) x 205.5cm (W) (multiple panels)
A PLACE WE CALL HOME
COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION @ STALA CONTEMPORARY (WEST PERTH, WA)
AASIYA EVANS, DESMOND MAH, & HARRISON WAED SEE,
Aasiya Evans, Desmond Mah & Harrison See represent three culturally diverse artists working across different multidisciplinary oeuvres of print and paint reflect on complex issues of identity through a range of personal/spiritual, political and social narratives. A collaborative exhibition that explores an inter-cultural and inter-connected approach as they reflect on their experiences of life in Australia. Bringing into question cultural connectivities and divisions that reveal the importance of discourse pertinent to Perth’s divergent cultural, academic and social communities. Themes especially relevant during times of global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supported through funding from the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries (WA).
Earthfire Valley responds to Micah by highlighting our choice to pursue what is good when confronted with chaos. An assemblage of iconography and symbolism, this painting is an allegorical response to current global social and ecological tensions. Tensions envisioned in the ominous scenes of dissonance surrounding both sides of a valley path. Navigating this valley, a lone protagonist either resigns to the overwhelming distraction or pursues truth; a choice reflected by the changing of the central panel. This alternating central panel aims to disrupt the static qualities of the painted image, while a complex narrative rewards an extended engagement with the work.
2020 PAINTED STUDIES
TBC
COMMISSION FOR PRIVATE COLLECTION (PERTH, WA)
NEXUS: A GROUP SHOW
COLLABORATIVE RESIDENCY (2020) @ FRINGE WORLD FESTIVAL (SPECTRUM PROJECT SPACE, MOUNT LAWLEY, WA)
Harrison Waed See responds to Akio Makigawa’s artwork as a pseudo-collaborative encounter. This collaboration took the form of a hypothetical dialogue between the two artists as See sought out the writing and artwork of Makigawa; as well as testimony from his still living acquaintances. Through this material, See engaged with Makigawa’s ideas, perspectives and approaches. This experience shifted See’s own approaches to painting and resulted in the creation of two new paintings. The residency was undertaken within a studio space shared with Perth-based artists, Gale Thackery and Laura Mitchell.
Review: https://www.seesawmag.com.au/2020/02/painting-and-process
HOLLOW FLIGHT
SOLO EXHIBITION (2019) @ SPECTRUM PROJECT SPACE, MOUNT LAWLEY, WA
Hollow Flight is a body of work that explores our fractured sense of self in an increasingly digital age. The ubiquity of social media and digital workspaces, or the escapism of online gaming and streaming platforms has become mainstream amongst the developed world. Through convenience or sheer proliferation these virtual spaces have infiltrated our corporal lives stretching our professional and personal identity across two worlds. A division that has become unavoidable in a post-humanist era, and a divide that can generate tension and alienation surrounding how we perceive others and ourselves online.
Online platforms like gaming and social media encourage an expectation of excessive connection rewarding users that participate with their communities. The accessibility of these apps facilitates a constant opportunity to connect, relentlessly dividing our time and attention between two spaces (Rosen, 2012 & Turkle, 2011). This pressure to maintain an increasingly online presence can lead to an obsessive relationship between a user and their own digital identity, or with that of others’ (Rosen, 2012 & Turkle, 2011). An Instagram or YouTube personality can sustain a following of millions through a cycle of content-creation and viewership that seemingly feeds both groups simultaneously. When these almost deity-like individual broadcast themselves to such a multitude of anonymous onlookers, it is not difficult to liken this present-day dynamic to that of ancient gods and their worshippers. It is this notion combined with the tension and alienation of a digital age that has inspired this series.
Incorporating symbolism from Greco-Roman, Christian and retro-gaming and iconographies, See has used the painted landscape to explore a journey of large titan-like figures and their anonymous cultish followers. Envisioning an uncertain world of mountains, forests and snaking pathways the artists paints a story of disconnection amongst its inhabitants. The title itself is a reference to the fall of Icarus, a mythical tale that the artist links to the constant mission of online celebrities as they seek to rise in popularity.
Rosen, L. D. (2012). iDisorder: Understanding our obsession with technology and overcoming its hold on us. St Martin’s Press, New York, NY.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone Together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Basic Books, New York, NY
PERTH STUDIES
SMALL SHOWCASE (2019) @ SPECTRUM PROJECT SPACE CABINET SPACE, MOUNT LAWLEY, WA
These painted studies are in response to Perth City's Churches and Cathedrals. Christian architecture erected in a foreign and strange land by Western immigrants as places of worship and ceremony away fro home,. These works are part of a larger series that explored the use of non-traditional colour palettes-often inspired by Western Australian bushland-to quickly render buildings of Perth's CBD.
2019 SMALL STUDIES
TRAILS OF RED & GREEN
PAINTING CREATED DURING A THREE-MONTH RESIDENCY (2018) @ MUNDARING ART CENTRE (MAC), MUNDARING, WA
oil on loose canvas
oil on loose canvas
Harrison See in MAC studio space
oil on loose canvas
Trails of Red & Green was painted during a three-month-long artist residency program, title 'Physical Mindfulness of Painting' at Mundaring Arts Centre (MAC). Harrison See explored a deeper appreciation of the physical act of painting by constructing a series of weighted brushes. These brushes aimed to enhance See's mindfulness of his movements and markmaking; the work itself is a response to the surrounding Mundaring landscape.
PRE-RESIDENCY SHOWCASE
A SERIES OF PRE-RESIDENCY PAINTINGS (2018) @ MUNDARING ART CENTRE (MAC), MUNDARING, WA
A series of painted studies created pre-residency that responded to the surrounding Mundaring landscape; the works were showcased in Harrison See's studio during his residency.
URBAN TREE
SOLO EXHIBITION (2018) @ THE LOBBY, SWANBOURNE, WA
Urban Tree is the fourth solo exhibition by artist Harrison See and represents a painted investigation of the flora within Perth’s urban spaces. Borrowing from real sites in and around Northbridge, See has created fictional landscapes that play with the relationship between natural and man-made features. These scenes exaggerate light and composition of existing spaces, while also removing the human figure to offer a mix of serenity and tension. See’s work is in part a response to his experience of returning home after an extended stay overseas, having a sudden awareness of the relatively small number of trees in Perth’s built up areas.
WEIGHTLESS
SOLO EXHIBITION (OPEN STUDIOS & MAIN GALLERY SHOW) @ KENT STREET GALLERY, VICTORIA PARK, WA
