Gabryel Harrison:
From Utter Darkness, Light Always Comes
July 10th - August 1st 2010
oil painting, with video projection
64" x 56"
5.00 - 5.40am July 11-18th
On exhibit at the Vivarium Gallery from July 10 to August 1, is a work titled 'From Utter Darkness, Light Always Comes', by Gabryel Harrison. This interdisciplinary installation consists of three components that support a rich conceptual practice: an oil painting, with merged video projection, and the artist present in meditation each dawn in the window as the light arrives.
The 64" x 56" oil painting on display is painted on raw canvas that was ritualistically submerged in the Fraser River for 7 days during a lunar eclipse. The words 'From Utter Darkness, Light Always Comes' are projected onto the face of the painting, becoming increasingly visible at dusk, remaining through the night, and disappearing again gradually at dawn. Gabryel completes the installation with a 7 day performance each morning in the window, a sunrise meditation as an illustration of how the practice of meditation transforms the dark. In this way the work itself cycles throughout each 24 hour period through different states.
Gabryel Harrison was born in New Zealand, and now lives and works in Vancouver, B.C. She completed a Fine Arts Degree at the University of Ottawa in 1980, later fulfilling post- graduate requirements to become an art therapist in 1992. Working as an art therapist until 1996, and thereafter in the creative arts field, Harrison has devoted herself to paint full-time since 1999.
To learn and view more about Gabryel's work please visit her website and the Vivarium Gallery website, you can also attend her exhibition this November at the Winsor Gallery in Vancouver.
