Statement & bio
STATEMENT
Hayley Harrison works with people, performance, written and light-projected text, plants, and alternative photography processes - working directly outside with or in response to urban landscapes.
Their work is concerned with collective and personal expressions of grief and gratitude, and the definition of ‘home’- in particular how these experiences help us understand our place in ‘nature’, and future communities.
They seek urgent questions and mantras relevant to places we inhabit, and to the communities and non-humans we share space with. They consider wherever we travel through and stand upon as ‘home’, though not always the home we wish for - who and what is missing? How do we celebrate what we have, fight for what could be, and mourn what was and was not?
HH often holds listening circles, cyanotype workshops and participatory walks following repeating calls. Their repeating calls are central to their practice (and own self-care) currently existing as large transitional, text-based performances projected onto urban surfaces with a handheld projector, and in contrast small and intimate process-led cyanotypes toned with plants. Both forms hold and direct light as a medium.
BIO
Hayley Harrison (b. 1983, Peterborough, UK) currently lives and works in London. They live on a narrowboat without a fixed mooring, moving from place to place every two weeks. Living nomadically in obscure urban, suburban and rural landscapes for the last decade has informed their practice. HH’s practice also draws on the experience of the passing of their parents and trauma in early childhood, and the consequential grounding and deep connection they found in natural environments both rural and urban.
They regularly exhibit and hold participatory projects. Collaborators include METAL Peterborough, PEER, Nunnery Gallery, Cubitt, OUTPOST, Surface Gallery, A.P.T, Almeida Theatre, Willesden Gallery, Dark Mountain, Bridget Sawyers Art Consultants (on behalf of Watford Council), and Narrative by Design (on behalf of Southwark Council), and Rugby Art Gallery and Museum. They were also recently in residency at Phytology: Bethnal Green Nature Reserve and awarded an Arts Council England DYCP and a-n Artist’s Bursary. They are an associate artist at the Climate Museum and volunteer for the Mobile Apothecary in Bethnal Green.
They are currently co-organising and exhibiting in the London Alternative Photography Collective exhibition ‘Symbiosis’. They are also developing their interactive walks and a new cyanotype series ‘they concreted over the garden and cats ran away’ made from old photos of their Nan’s garden.
VISIT
Please email for further information about Hayley Harrison’s practice and events or to arrange a studio visit. Their studio is 5 minutes away from Haggerston Overground Station in London and has step-free access, with a disabled access toilet.