Helen & Newton Harrison

Sierra Nevada, 2011
(installation view south gallery)
aerial photograph, digital mapping, pastel, oil, and ink
42 feet long x variable width

Vision for the Green Heart of Holland,
1995
(detail)
maps, drawings, video, text, ceramic titles
installation view, Catheren Chapel, Gouda, Holland

Independence Lake Adaptation
Site, 2011
photograph, pastel, and ink
36 x 40 3/4 inches
edition of 3

Greenhouse Britain
The Lea Valley: On the Upward Movement
of Planning, 2007
text panel: ink on vinyl, 86 x 20 inches
3 maps: ink, oil, colored pencil on vinyl, 90 x 90 inches each
overall dimensions: 90 x 120 x 94 3/4 inches

Breathing Space for the Sava River,
Yugoslavia, 1988-90
(detail)
photo collage, texts, maps

Helen & Newton Harrison are among the leading pioneers of the “eco-art movement,” the team of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison are often referred to simply as "the Harrisons." The pair has worked closely with biologists, ecologists and urban planners for over thirty years to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development. Their work is scientific and detailed. “The Harrison's concept of art embraces a breathtaking range of disciplines. They are historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators, emissaries and art activists. Their work involves proposing solutions and involves not only public discussion, but extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in an art context.”

"Our work begins when we perceive an anomaly in the environment that is the result of opposing beliefs or contradictory metaphors. Moments when reality no longer appears seamless and the cost of belief has become outrageous offer the opportunity to create new spaces - first in the mind and thereafter in everyday life." -Helen & Newton Harrison

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