In conversation with Ray Harris

Nic Brown, Collections Curator, FUMA, in conversation online with South Australian artist Ray Harris, to discuss her research and development for the 2020-21 iteration of The Guildhouse Collections Project in collaboration with Flinders University Museum of Art.

Ray Harris is a South Australian artist whose visual arts practice encompasses performative video, live performance, installation and sculpture. Through these mediums Harris investigates psychological complexities and struggles of the self, and the dualities between inner thought and outer action. In doing so she utilises narcissistic fantasy as a narrative device to explore aspects of what it means to be human.

For The Collections Project Harris will develop the performative aspect of her practice by researching FUMA’s collection of international and Australian conceptual and performance art of the 1960s and 1970s. Harris will reinterpret or re-enact works by Australian artists Mike Parr (1945-), Ken Unsworth (1931- ) and Graeme Davis (1949-), as a method in which to conceptualise and develop new performative video work.  FUMA and Guildhouse are delighted to present Harris’ new work at FUMA in February 2021 due to COVID-19 rescheduling.

The Collections Project is a collaboration between Guildhouse and Flinders University Museum of Art that provides artists with the opportunity to engage with the Museum’s collections and staff to create new work for exhibition. Guildhouse is the leading South Australian organisation supporting and creating connections for South Australian creative practitioners.