Jessica Harrison: Dissecting Space

Squashed limestone, decapitated ornaments,

mouth-interior kaleidoscope prints and fly-leg
false eyelashes are just some of the bizarre and
fascinating explorations of Scottish artist,
Jessica Harrison. Having studied exclusively at
the Edinburgh College of Art, Harrison explores,
in great conceptual depth, the relationship
between our physical selves and the space in
which it exists.

This is something that fascinates me and something that I have also significantly explored through art practice and theory. In order to investigate the relationships we have as contained and separate entities to a buzzing, constantly moving and changing physical, as well as conceptual world around us you need to get your hands dirty.



Harrison does exactly this through her physical manipulation and dissection of found objects and raw materials. On the surface it seems she does so in a violent and almost grotesque manner, but actually, as she states herself, and as I can understand from personal experience, the processes through which you manipulate and change objects are actually incredibly delicate. If you are choosing to change the object rather than just ‘add on’ to it then I believe the processes become significantly more detailed, complex and precise, which is where the real exploration of our physical sensitivity and fragility begins.

In her ‘Breaking’ series she dissects porcelain ornaments, or delicately breaks them and re-works them so they look like they have been dissected, or perhaps, more fittingly, mutilated. She then names
each of them, which transforms them into more than just a porcelain ornament. They become more human and we feel thecuts, tares and precisions of Harrison’s procedure. As with all her pieces, due toher use and manipulation of the body, we are able to relate to her creations as they focus on something we all have. When something is removed or put in the wrong place we wince or cringe, we imagine it as if it has been done to
 our own body.

The one that ‘crept me out’ the most, I don’t say this in disrespect, rather in admiration for provoking such an intense feeling within me, was her piece Table (2009). Here, Harrison makes a miniature table to look like it’s made out of skin and with fingers for legs. She then photographs it resting finger to finger with a real human hand. Because of the particular sensitivity of skin and the sense of touch located and concentrated into the fingertips, the contact between the table and the real hand is almost electrifying to look at. You imagine the connection you feel when putting your fingertips to someone else’s and then you realise that the image is showing you something that is not attached to another human entity, or in fact human at all. It brings into question the space around it and therefore the space we exist in, as does all of her work.

The idea of the opposition inside/outside is constantly explored, more often than we may expect, within every form of art. Harrison, however, makes it her subject, and up to now her life’s work. By slicing, dissecting and combining inhuman with the human she provokes us to question, or at least look more carefully at, our body and its relation to the world around it.

By Alex Johnson