This past winter, Aspen was reintroduced to the work of Lyle Ashton Harris with a focused showing of the esteemed multidisciplinary artist’s “Shadow Works” series at Baldwin Gallery. The ongoing body of work is a codex of sorts for Harris, who Ryan McGinley once dubbed “the living godfather of gender, race and sexuality.” In the assemblages, kente fabrics, which Harris collected during his time living in Ghana; photographic prints; and intimate ephemera commune, creating a record that’s at once time-stamped and abstracted.
For the second edition of Aspen Art Museum’s AIR festival, he’s homed in on one work from the series, Oracle, 2020, activating it live through what he calls “performative montage.” On Oracle, which will unfold on the museum’s rooftop on July 29, sees Harris partner with writer and activist Darnell L. Moore and interdisciplinary artist and choreographer Raymond Pinto. Against a backdrop of projected images, the trio will invoke the personal and political themes Oracle began to unspool with a spoken-word performance.
Ahead of the work’s debut, CULTURED caught up with Harris, who splits his time between studios in New York City and Upstate New York, to discuss the soundtrack he works to, his mantra, and the work that changed the way he thinks about art.
What’s on your studio playlist?
Classical music, Aretha Franklin, and I’ve been listening to several audiobooks, like Happiness Becomes You by Tina Turner and Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight.
What’s the first thing you do when you enter your studio?
Tune into KUSC.
What’s in your studio fridge?
Raspberry lime sparkling water.
If you could have a studio visit with one artist, dead or alive, who would it be?
Weegee.
What’s the weirdest tool you can’t live without?
Push pins.
What’s the biggest studio mishap you’ve experienced?
Setting off a fire alarm from burning sage.
Have you ever destroyed a work to make something new?
All the time.
On a scale of hoarder to Marie Kondo, where do you fall?
Hoarder.
Is there a studio rule you live by?
Process is a bitch.
What book changed the way you think about art?
Photography Against the Grain by Allan Sekula.
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