In these works on board and feature digital and photographic images, where the tropes of depth of field are brought into play with disruptive pixilation. The use of hand painted veils presents visual interference and further mediates the original video-captured images. This interplay of mechanical and painted nuance adds distance to the images which depict moments of a frozen dance performance. The paintings imply, on the one hand, an elegiac loss of the vital aura of lived performed experience, and on the other, the interplay of mechanical tropes bringing the viewers awareness back to the forms of technological representation.
The duality at play questions the reliability of any poetic reading – and creates an oscillation, a recurrence of doubt.
Dereck Harris studied at Cardiff 1980-84 and later at Chelsea UAL1985-86. He also taught widely, but at Wimbledon College of Art in particular, where he was Head of Painting from 2006-17. Exhibitions include solo shows at the TM Lighting gallery (2023), Flowers Artists for a Day in 2004, and the Nunnery Gallery in 2002. He has also exhibited in numerous group shows: Cubitt30 at Victoria Miro Gallery (2023), Chorus at the Arusha Gallery in Edinburgh (2022), Practices of Enquiry UAL Clockhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Art and Design (2017), The Perfect Nude curated by Phil Allen and Dan Coombs at the Exter Pheonix Gallery, Wimbledon Space Gallery and Charlie Smith Gallery, Hoxton (2012). Each
