Harrell Fletcher
Thursday 19 December 2009 at 7pm, at Bétonsalon. “Regarding my method of work, I am often asked to go somewhere to do a project in an art center, a university gallery or other places. Generally, it is a place I’d never go if it had not been proposed to do something there. For example, Eastern Kentucky University, Croatia, Vietnam, Hartford, Connecticut, Houston, Texas, etc …” I use these residency invitations to learn about where I am in different modes. I can read books, watch movies or documentaries, trying to build a project from this information. I can also go to this place, walk there and talk to people I meet. Sometimes I end up working with people I meet, and I am carried in their lives. I consider this as fundamental learning experiences. The work of research using text or film thus becomes secondary, but I like both forms. What really interests me is that I could learn these things – I leave the direction of my research to get away early. I always explicitly determine what attracts me and I want to spend more time working with selected items that seem interesting. Once the major research is done, I experiment and transform some of its aspects in projects for the public. I intend to share what I find interesting. It’s like recommending a restaurant or movie, but in my case this results in a video made at a service station on James Joyce’s Ulysses, or by exposure to the Vietnam War from the War Museum Vietnam. Harrell Fletcher Harrell Fletcher was born in 1967 in Santa Maria, California, he lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Her work has been presented internationally, including SF MoMA, the Seattle Art Museum (Seattle), Signal (Malmo), Domaine de Kerguehennec (France), and the Royal College of Art (London).