See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes

See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes
by Phil Harris
@ DOPPLER PDX
625 NW Everett Street #109
Everett Station Lofts
Portland, Oregon 97209
October 7-16, 2010 and by appointment
Opening Reception October 7th 5:30-9:00 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays (October 9th & 16th) 1-4 pm

A visual artist for over than thirty years, Phil Harris has for most of that time considered himself a photographer with a strong interest in the process of visual, bodily and emotional perception. However, over the last few years, Harris has slowed down his photographic practice and questioned what he needed to say in that medium. Through his recent work, See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes, Harris discovered that what he needs to say at this point required learning another expressive language. This new language invents itself out of the accumulation of small grains of intuition, understanding and uncertainty in the face of present-day life as a human being. See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes is in every sense a group of prototypes: they lack polish. They are intended to draw attention away from themselves as objects, and toward their function, which is the direct experience of perception itself. Thus, the pieces can’t fulfill their promise unless they’re physically engaged by the audience allowing the separation between the seer and the seen to waver, perhaps becoming momentarily irrelevant. What do you see? How do you understand it? How do you share your experience? BIOGRAPHY Phil Harris is a Portland-based artist and photographer. His photographic work was published a retrospective monograph in 2000 and is housed in many collections, public and private, in the US and Europe.
See For Yourself: Experiential Prototypes is the first exhibition of a new direction in Harris’ work. He teaches in and chairs the General Studies Department at Oregon College of Art & Craft. For more information visit:www.dopplerpdx.com