Intimacy of Fear / Pema Chödrön

Australian Galleries MELBOURNE June 2024

"If you don't know fear you will never know fearlessness" spoken by Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön.

Pema Chödrön speaks of looking fear in the eye, and moving towards discomfort.

I think for some time I have looked fear square on, but my relationship with it is different now. I don't avert my gaze, trying to wish it away. 

Acknowledge her presence and move closer.

This exhibition represents a huge marker in time.

Transition.  New Beginnings. 

A special Melbourne gallery holding space for works that question boundaries and play with chance.  Thank you to Stuart Purvis and his team.

Artist Profile Article

Circles expand and contract. 

As artists we oscillate between what we know, and new territory. 

Magic happens if you trust the unknown and hold the familiar. 

Artist Profile republished an article written years ago, coinciding with my first exhibition at King Street Gallery on William.  I wondered the relevance to now, to this show Intimacy of Fear, my first solo show in Melbourne with Australian Galleries 

Reading the article  prompted me to find a work referenced... an early bronze made after my return from the Western Front. Its connection to the big new work was striking,  I feel silly to have been surprised.

Artists  return to a space we've been before, forms instinctively appear from our hand - they are embedded in our subconscious.

Yet even when we are making something that might be considered familiar - we find ourselves on a limb. Standing precariously on the cliff edge, securing the oddest concrete formwork known to man.

Relying on courage, hoping the hidden form is in line with the vision. 

Knowing we have one shot at it. 

And sometimes… magic happens. 

Sculpture in the Vines, Wollombi 14- 29 September 2024

Grafton Regional Art Gallery, September 2024

The prose of others best capture the essence of this sculpture.

“Nature never betrayed a heart that loved her” Keats

“In this moment, as the sun stretches its burnished hands upon the world, I feel myself finally pulling apart with time. Something is coming and I feel surrender approaching. A gentle giving in.

I am not afraid. Not now. I’ve seen enough to know that fear scrapes feelings from hearts and I have no desire to scour mine down to bare and trembling muscle…

The testimony of love is the backbone of the universe. It is the taproot from which all stories spring.

Listen, wind. Here is my small filament.” Hannah Kent, Devotion

JADA/ Jacaranda Drawing Prize Finalist

Grafton Regional Art Gallery, September 2024

I am delighted to have this drawing selected as a finalist, how exciting to have a core facet of my creative practice recognised. Made while on residency in Bhutan this drawing holds many questions. The “Kingdom of Happiness” provided an extraordinary space to ground and recalibrate, breathing life into my drawing practice. Layers are built with marks, colour, and collage, form appearing and disappearing, they developed through a process of trust and instinct.

Drawing Intensive - Fran O’Neill

THE PORTLAND WORKSHOPS, JULY 2024

What an extraordinary three days! 15 women gathered to champion each other, extending and pushing their drawing practice. With a focus on play, Fran O’Neill led the group through drawing exercises, tutorials covering well known and obscure artists as well as providing participants direction to find their own voice. Firm friendships were formed over charcoal, tea, and crazy dinners. I believe community is essential to a rich rewarding arts practice, and this Drawing Intensive was just the beginning for The Portland Workshops!

While The World Waits culminates in Parliament House

Parliament House, Macquarie Street Sydney, August 2024

She turned and looked at me, my heart melted was made early 2024 for exhibition in Intimacy of Fear at Australian Galleries Melbourne.
"If you don't know fear you will never know fearlessness" spoken by Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön.

Love is a challenging emotion, laced with fear, filled with hope, defined by courage. This sculpture has a simple beauty, she holds you. Cast in our very own Portland Foundry, never touched by another hand; I feel she has an honesty and a generosity, human emotions caught in the fabric of bronze.

Landscape of the soul / solo exhibition

King Street Gallery on William, November 2023

“Nature never betrayed a heart that loved her” Keats

Reverberating with an energy that is at once bold and questioning, Landscape of the Soul holds the creative exploration and emotional resonance of the past three years.

Duality is ever present. Strength lies beside vulnerability, weight beside suspension and the solid mass plays against the void. Natural fibers, fingerprints and spontaneous decisions are caught in the longevity of bronze.

The bronze sculptures presented are cast in-house, by me and a small team I trained, in a foundry I built within my studio, “The Portland Foundry”. The process mirrors the notion of duality; the playfulness in developing creative ideas and sculptures in direct contrast to the tough reality of casting production. There is a small edition of these sculptures, but each remains unique, the edition variable.

Big thank you to Robert, Randy, Amanda, Jo and Charlotte.

Bhutan Artist In Residence

Paro College of Education, Royal University of Bhutan, July-Sept 2023

A residency in Bhutan reconnected me to a lightness of being. The land of the thunder dragon acknowledged my unwavering belief in the universe, laughed at my seriousness and reminded me of the importance of solitude and play in creative pursuit.

I drew with furious intent bewildering staff and students of Paro College. I travelled distances to work with artisans at the Dharma Foundry, and I befriended locals moving their herds, tending their rice fields and moved with them in the noisey rice strewn chaos that is Buddhist prayer.

Play. Solitude. Community.

Bhutan entered my soul.

A SHARED SKY

A Shared Sky is a work commissioned for the The Milparinka Heritage and Tourism Association for the Harry Blore Memorial Park, Milparinka, in Western New South Wales.

With the guidance of Malyangapa woman, Gail Hunt, and in consultation with Wirradjuri artist Aleshia Londsdale, Harrie has interpreted the emu constellation story. The sculpture is bold, utilising raw steel pipe to animate the emu form as it morphs through the seasonal sky.

You can find out about visiting the region HERE

Blue Tree

The Oberon Blue Tree Project, supported by Arts OutWest and with Create NSW Arts Restart funds has officially been unveiled on May 28 2022. The Blue Tree Project is a nationwide initiative acknowledging those who’ve committed suicide.

A large metal tree sculpture made by artist Harrie Fasher, was painted by community members at Oberon Common on May 21.  The non-living tree is a powerful symbol recognising mental health issues that can lead to this.

The blue tree project’s mission is to help spark difficult conversations and encourage people to speak up when battling mental health concerns.

By spreading the paint and spreading the message that “it’s OK to not be OK”, we can help break down the stigma that’s still largely attached to mental health.

This is a project of the Oberon Blue Tree Committee supported by Oberon Council, Oberon Arts Council and Arts OutWest and RAMP.

WHILE THE WORLD AWAITS TOURING EXHIBITION

Harrie’s sculpture Untitled / silence features in While the World Waits , an Arts OutWest touring exhibition.

While the World Waits will travel for 12 months to galleries and venues across Bathurst, Blayney, Cabonne, Cowra, Forbes, Lachlan, Lithgow, Mid-Western Regional, Oberon, Orange, Parkes and Weddin. 

Photo credit: Silversalt Photography

THE SPACE BEHIND

Commissioned by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and presented as part of CEL:  ARTIST AS ANIMATOR at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.

This installation is a demonstration of my process and an honest unveiling of an artists’ mind in a time of uncertainty. It explores hidden truths, unspoken realities and mysterious processes. This work is a sculptural triptych of lines. It is an experiment in the expanded field of drawing. 

Installation; stop motion animation, mixed media concrete sculpture, reclaimed truck tarpaulin Concrete sculpture; (concrete, steel, hessian, canvas, felt, steel rope, hemp rope)186 x 280 x 154cm

Audio by Hugh Fasher

Supported by The Foundations, Portland

SCULPTURE AT SAWMILLERS AWARD

Harrie was the winner of the Major Prize at the 2022 Sculpture at Sawmillers.

The judges commented on Harrie’s winning work…”to imagine that you can reintroduce the horse into art, in a contemporary way, is very ambitious. The sculpture has a strong presence, depth, rawness, motion and grunt. “

SCULPTURES IN THE GARDEN AND MID-WESTERN REGIONAL ACQUISITION PRIZE

Harrie was awarded the 2021 Sculptures in the Garden and Mid-Western Regional Council Acquisition Prize for her sculpture ‘Ahead’ 183x203x230cm. Sculptures in the Garden is regional New South Wales’ largest annual outdoor art exhibition.

“Ahead” is our guardian. She was intended to be the head for “Transition” the largest work I have built to date; however it was too large, meaning the finished sculpture would not fit with in the confines of the studio roof! Ahead became a work on its own right… ‘we were not behind but ahead!’. And Transition went on to win Sculpture by the Sea in Cottesloe WA.

Photos courtesy Sculptures in the Garden.

ARTSTATE 2020 WAGGA WAGGA

Harrie is a guest speaker at Artstate 2020 5 November - 8 November 2020

Panel 4: No Limits Being regionally based has not deterred these artists in pursuit of excellence in their arts practice and achieving national recognition for their work. This panel discusses three very different artistic journeys and the advantages of a regional base. Heath Cullen musician and recording artist, Candelo Harrie Fasher sculptor, Portland Sarah Last Artistic Director and CEO, The Wired Lab, Cootamundra Moderator: Sally Bryant, mornings presenter, ABC Riverina. Download the speaker program