Peter Harris’s ‘Higher Powers’ exhibition with
Live performance by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Adrian Sherwood
Tabernacle, Powis Square, Notting Hill, London W12 2AY
Thursday 10 September 2009
‘Higher Powers’ is an innovative collaboration between Musician Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Producer and Mixologist Adrian Sherwood, and Artist Peter Harris. This unique event will consist of a live performance with interactive VJ, film screening and art exhibition.
Legendary Jamaican musician and reggae Pioneer Lee Scratch Perry hardly needs an introduction. Grammy-award winning Perry reigned supreme over the Golden Age of 70’s reggae, writing and performing some of the most seminal albums of the seventies, such as 'Super Ape' and 'Roast Fish, Collie Weed and Corn Bread'. Peter Harris is an Artist and Filmmaker who has collaborated with iconic musicians such as Siouxsie Sioux, The Stranglers and David Bowie. Adrian Sherwood is co-founder of Carib Gems and Pressure Sounds, and his most well-known label is On-U Sound Records where he worked with Prince Far I. Sherwood began working with Perry in 1986, and together they produced the classic album "Time Boom X De Devil Dead".
The ‘Higher Powers’ interactive art and music event will take place at iconic West London venue the Tabernacle, which played a pivotal role in the 60’s underground, 70’s punk and reggae crossover, the growth of Notting Hill carnival and revival of ‘Cool Britannia’.
Perry will perform songs that relate to themes from Harris’s film ‘Higher Powers’. A 'VJ' will respond with live visual interpretations of Perry's songs, created by Harris and animator Llyr Williams using video collage and special effects. Perry will be supported on stage by Sherwood, who will provide a live mix as Perry completes a large painting with Peter Harris.
As well as the live event, this will also be the first opportunity to see new paintings by Harris and Perry, alongside a series of drawings produced by the Artist and Musician. The incredible collection of drawings were created in 2007, when Harris spent time in Perry’s artistic hideaway in the mountains outside Zurich, a kind of European version of his infamous ‘Black Ark’ studio in Jamaica. Together they made some truly visionary artworks, based on Harris’s drawings around themes central to the ‘Higher Powers’ film such as; destiny, fate, luck and doubt. In an explosive collaboration between Artist and Musician, Perry lent his own visionary input to Harris’s graphic, accomplished pen and pencil drawings. The result is a series of one-off artworks produced in a similar way to the automatic drawings of the Surrealists, with a hint of Primitivism, the magic of Voodoo, and the spirit of urban graffiti Artists. Limited edition prints will be available, signed by Perry himself.
This will also be the UK Premier of ‘Higher Powers’, the inspiration for this unique multimedia event. ‘Higher Powers’ was conceived in June 2003, when Harris began asking people a series of questions relating to the theme of higher powers. Three months into filming, his sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Three weeks after this, his father was also diagnosed with terminal cancer. What began as an experiment became an urgent personal quest for answers.
With no budget and a cheap camcorder, Harris approached a variety of people, each with their own view on higher powers. The eclectic list includes Uri Geller, David Icke, The Venerable Akong Tulku, "Dear Deidre" Sanders, gangster Dave Courtney, movie maverick Ken Russell, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, political activist Peter Tatchell, anti-abortionist Reverend Joanna Jepson and musician Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Add to this unlikely cast a veritable smorgasbord of characters including musicians, artists, poets, a transvestite, a police chief and a priest.
Whilst Harris remains largely off camera during interviews, his own interpretations of these themes, and of the answers given, are explored through short video pieces punctuating various sections of the film. Some of these pieces involve collaborations with the interviewees, for example a spoon-bending encounter with Uri Geller, or a poetic call to creative arms at Speaker's Corner with Lee 'Scratch' Perry. Elsewhere Harris combines his own material with film and music samples from his own personal history of popular culture, for example Van Gogh's suicide in 'Lust for Life' is spliced together with a mythical death crow of Harris's creation reciting Hamlet, all to the soundtrack of Public Image Limited's despairing 'Theme'. Or in 'Crutch', where Harris himself appears encumbered with symbols of his various dependencies, low-fi slapstick meets with horrifically convincing special effects in the final explosive outcome.
Higher Powers will be supporting and donating work to CLIC Sargent this year. CLIC Sargent is the UK's leading children's cancer charity. They provide the widest range of services and the highest number of care professionals to look after children and young people with cancer and their families
Press on 'Higher Powers':
Culture 24
http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art71903
Dazed Digital
http://www.dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/4507/1/Higher_Power
Spoonfed
http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/tom-699/peter-harris-interview-higher-powers-at-the-tabernacle-with-lee-scratch-perry-1402/
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Event: Peter Harris’s ‘Higher Powers’ exhibition with
Live performance by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Adrian Sherwood
Address: Tabernacle, Powis Square, Notting Hill, London W12 2AY
Date: Thursday 10 September 2009
Exhibition: 6pm
Live show: 8pm
Ticket price: £20
Tickets available from seetickets.com or ticketline.com
Websites:
http://www.leescratchperry-peterharris-art.com
http://www.peterharrisart.co.uk
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry
Revered music maverick Lee 'Scratch' Perry was responsible for nearly every hit song that came out of Jamaica in the golden period of seventies reggae. Working with primitive four-track recording equipment in his legendary Black Ark studio, his innovative production techniques led him to the creation of Dub music earning him a reputation as the Jamaican Phil Spector. Perry is one of Rolling Stone’s top 100 Artists of all time. Working with the cream of the Jamaican reggae scene, most notably Bob Marley and the Wailers creating what is widely considered to be their greatest music, he has also worked with The Clash, The Beastie Boys and Paul McCartney to mention a few. He continues to perform and write new music including the 2003 Grammy awarded 'Jamaican E.T.'
Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood is best known for his work with dub music as well as for his remixing on records by Coldcut, The Fall, The Slits, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinead O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy. He is also the fourth member of industrial funk outfit, Tackhead, credited as "mixologist." His own albums include "Never Trust a Hippie?" which include collaborations with Sly & Robbie and "Becoming a Cliche" with Dennis Bovell, Little Roy and Mark Stewart. He has just finished his third album with Lee 'Scratch' Perry.
Peter Harris
Peter Harris was born in Portsmouth in 1967, and studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art & Design, and the University of East London. His work has been exhibited in Europe, America and Asia. In the mid-nineties Harris co-founded 'Uncle Grey Presents', a showcase for Artists, Performers and Filmmakers in London's East End.
His painting installation 'Hard Rain', inspired by Bob Dylan and The Clash, toured the country as part of the 'Air Guitar' art and music show, and was also shown - along with his London Mennonite Choir collaboration entitled 'Hymn' - at the National Film Theatre. Harris also wrote and directed the play ‘Sir Septimus Vein’s Carnival of Freak’, which was shown at the King's Head Theatre in London.
The Tabernacle:
With 2009 proving to be the year of nostalgia, the reopening of Tabernacle couldn’t be better timed. The Victorian auditorium upstairs has hosted many musical legends over the years, from acts as diverse as Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of The Clash, Santana, REM, Aswad and Tim Westwood’s Hip Hop. In more recent times, Damon Albarn rehearsed The Good, The Bad and The Queen and his opera Monkey, and Lily Allen recently returned to the stage of her first performance as a seven-year-old Frog to play a secret Myspace gig and to release her latest single.
‘Higher Powers’ is presented by Paddy Barstow & Eazy Bailey.
Eazy Bailey is an event services agency, with more than 10 years experience in music related productions ranging from intimate parties for Jade Jagger and Mark Ronson, to high-profile concerts for clients such as MTV and Puma.
Paddy Barstow is a Creative Consultant working with artists, designers and photographers. Barstow’s latest creation is ‘Art Mosh’, a platform for emerging young talent in art and music in conjunction with Wallpaper* and Nixon. He was emerging talent scout for the international creative bible Le Book London launching the first Illustration section at Le book London.
For further information, press enquiries, images or interview requests contact:
Paddy Barstow (Art)
+44 (0)7866 566 040
paddy@patrickbarstow.com
Eazy Bailey (Music)
+44 (0)7973 413 948
eazy.bailey@me.com
Lee Johnson PR
+ 44 (0) 7814 862 834
lee@lee-johnson.co.uk
http://www.leejohnsonpr.blogspot.com
PB / Eazy Bailey
Unit 31, 249-251 Kensal Road
London W10 5DB
www.eazybailey.com
