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    Local Artist Spotlight: Is Dana Lynn Harper “A Little Too Much”?

    Columbus-based artist Dana Lynn Harper has been preparing a new body of work for nearly three years through experimentation, exploration and repetitive mark-making. Friday, December 9, Harper unveils an exhibition titled A Little Too Much at Vanderelli Room in Franklinton.

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    The exhibition features several new works and an installation titled Field Guides that will be making its debut for the first time in Columbus. Inspired by the process of creating work through repetitive actions, which she credits to making her previous work such as Bloom Bloom so successful, Harper has dug deeper than ever before into material and process to explore the question, “What is too much?”

    By allowing the materials to lead her and by not having a preconceived expectation of finished work, Harper says she is allowed to explore more. There are no disappointing moments where the ideas in her mind don’t match up with the work she creates. By being loose, Harper gets the most out of the material she uses and images manifest that take her by surprise.

    “How can I push this material to do something that it’s not supposed to do?” she asks. “I make up my own process and use the material in a way that isn’t intended to be used because the work is not about the material. I don’t necessarily want them [people] to be like this piece is about yarn or this piece is about the history of fiber.”

    "Field Guides" previously on view at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland. Image provided by the artist.
    “Field Guides” previously on view at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland. Image provided by the artist.

    The Journey of the Spirit

    “I’ve been exploring what the spirit looks like outside of the body for some time…pretty much after my dad died,” explains Harper. “That’s been something that’s in the background all the time.”

    In previous explorations of depicting the spirit, Harper has concentrated more on the abstract concept of the spirit, describing it as sparkly.

    “If you imagine like, in a cartoon, all the little sparkly bits,” she says. “It’s like the moment that the spirit leaves.”

    Field Guides, however, is centered around the idea of the spirit after it leaves the body. Harper asks the question, what does the soul look like outside of the body, after its journey, and its existence after the transition from body to an afterlife? To Harper, Field Guides are the spirit reclaiming individuality, there’s a flamboyancy in their shape, color and material. The guides are joyful because their struggle is over. They are free.

    Harper understands that not every viewer will make the same connection to Field Guides as she has.

    “People will meet you wherever they’re at and trying to control that reaction is pointless,” she explains. “What people do experience is joy and play because I do allow people to touch [the work]. I think even if they’re not connecting to the fact that this piece is really about death and transition, they are still receiving what I feel I receive from a spiritual space, which is comfort, joy, play and encouragement.”

    Another body of work, Portal Installation, started from a desire to make a larger, singular piece. But again, Harper faced hesitation in creating something so large and potentially wasting material. Instead, she stopped trying to control the concept and creation too much, allowing it to form on its own. This resulted in a large installation comprised of many, much smaller works. By making smaller pieces, Harper was able to study the idea of a portal and explore what a portal can be.

    It’s not lost on Harper that the portals she creates can resemble a headstone.

    “There’s also a strange connection there to death,” she says. “You know, death is like the ultimate portal. I see a portal as an exit, escapism. The potential to be somewhere else, the potential to belong somewhere else, the potential to be in a better place.”

    For Harper, this speaks to our current economic and political environment. The hope is that something better can exist out there for all of us. 

    A portal study. Image provided by the artist.

    Beyond Bloom Bloom.

    The rigidness of undergraduate art school — with structured classes and structured teaching methods and where students were asked to execute concepts using techniques taught in class — gave way to graduate school, where Harper learned that she had the trust of her professors and permission to explore different avenues and techniques for creating. The term “process-oriented artist” was introduced to Harper and it allowed her freedom to begin exploring new concepts, methods and techniques. Bloom Bloom was born out of walking down the street and finding the material, flagging tape, that makes up the behemoth installation. What started as a sculpture became an arch and became something much larger through Harper’s professors encouraging her to push further and further beyond the initial concept.

    Bloom Bloom has undoubtedly become one of Harper’s most instantly recognizable works. Patrons will pay her to recreate Bloom Bloom at events or buy mini representations of the iconic work. Harper understands the love that the public has for Bloom Bloom and it fills her with love to see others experience it, but it also fills her with frustration. Opening up during our conversation, she admitted to once crying in a fit of frustration, thinking that Bloom Bloom might have been the peak of her artistic career.

    “I wish they could just like, invest in me as an artist,” she spoke of the conundrum. “I was capable of making Bloom Bloom but I’m also capable of making so many other things and I wish that people could trust me to create other beautiful things.”

    The trust is there. Harper recalls a partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art in creating work for their Wonder Room. Hannah Mason-Macklin, who led the project, was open to whatever Harper wanted to create.

    “I feel like that’s how a partnership should work,” Harper says. “I understand you’re bringing me in because I’ve proven that I can work on a massive scale, but I appreciate the intellectual trust.”

    This trust allowed her to create Rainwall, an installation of vinyl and plexiglass resulting in a shimmering and reflective installation mimicking cartoon-like raindrops, and a massive, climbable version of her Cloud Buddies.

    Details of Pattern Paintings. Image provided by the artist.

    Color & Pattern as Rebellion

    Pattern Paintings, made during the pandemic as a reaction to feeling stuck, started as collages and work on paper because of the low risk Harper says is involved in the experimentation and process. That freedom set her up for exploration and intuitive creations. Each Pattern Painting starts with a background color, and then pattern on top of new pattern is layered on top. Nothing is planned and each layer is a reaction to the layer underneath it.

    Jelly rollers, puffy paints, and things that aren’t considered traditional art materials are fun for Harper to use. It’s a way to tap into her inner child. Additionally, they are low-risk materials. Harper doesn’t use special materials that need to be made in a certain way or imported from special places. She is using items and commonplace material that, through her intention and technique, are turning the material on its head. Harper’s chosen materials don’t cost much and allow her to experiment away from the fear of lost labor and cost.

    “I think that a lot of times I’ll like, hold myself back from an idea because I’m worried about the labor and then I’m worried about the money and then I’m worried about selling it because it’s like you know, we have to live, we have to survive,” she laments. “And so a lot of times I’m just like fighting that capitalist consumer mindset so that I can get to even get to something good. A lot of [creating] is just fighting all that like internalized, capitalist mindset.”

    Harper pushes boundaries, asking how much pattern can she put onto something where it still holds its own, and doesn’t look like a mess. When people look at art as a consumer, they often try to find work that fits into the neat, compartmentalized versions of their home and life. Will the work fit with the living room decor? Will it fit in nicely with the new duvet covers in the bedroom? Harper’s work is rejecting this consumer nature by using color and pattern as an act of artistic rebellion.

    “I’m the artist. I’m not going to let this outside world dictate what is palatable,” exclaims Harper.

    In an art and design world that is still predominantly ruled by white men, the home decor of choice is often a take on Scandinavian Minimalism, with white walls and simplicity in design and pattern. Harper looks outside of the Euro-centric established art aesthetic for inspiration and acceptance of what she wants to create, drawing from places such as Thailand with its use of intricate ornamentation or Japan with its embrace of kawaii cuteness and bright pastels.

    “I think for a long time I was really worried that people are gonna see my work and they’re not gonna take it seriously,” Harper says. “You know, because it’s so colorful [and] because it’s so flamboyant. There’s a certain point where it’s like I’m not being honest with myself. I just need to make my most honest work and like, if the world doesn’t buy it, I’ll just wait.”

    While being confined by capitalism doesn’t allow Harper the ability to explore in size and material the way she would like to, she does take calculated risks with her color palette, choosing colors that make her happy.

    Harper also addresses being policed as a woman, through fashion and what is and isn’t acceptable for a woman or femme person to be wearing at certain ages of their life. Harper feels that sporting pink hair in your 20s is acceptable to society, but that women are expected to grow out of these things and become more palatable to the general public.

    “I don’t have to be palatable for you,” Harper says. “I can do whatever I want, I can wear whatever I want, I can look however I want, and my art can be whatever it wants to be.”

    Details of Field Guides. Image provided by the artist.
    Details of Field Guides. Image provided by the artist.

    “A Little Too Much”

    Harper recalls an interaction she had with a male visiting artist once. Upon viewing her work he asked how her work can mean anything at all, calling it superficial because it was obsessed with beauty.

    “I think back to that a lot,” says Harper. “I was too much for him. Like, the beauty is too much for him.”

    She fights against this in her work and in her personal life, questioning whether her male counterparts have to explain themselves.

    “I think like oftentimes it’s used to kind of like delineate our work,” Harper says. “I can think of a lot of men that I know that use neons and use rhinestones and focus on beauty, but that isn’t tied back to their gender.” 

    And yet, there is a balance, a sense of control that is present in Harper’s loud-and-proud work. She goes on to describe the process of control and how it is an essential part of creation.

    A professor in graduate school helped Harper understand and embrace the idea of being too much. Whereas Harper was afraid of being too much, the professor pushed her to find out what “too much” looked like.

    “She was like, ‘Okay well you need to make something where it is too much so that you can see it,’” Harper recalls.

    Trying to avoid being too much would become a reactionary response to something you’ve never experienced, the professor went on to explain. Harper heeded the advice and created a piece that was “too much” just so she could see it. Now she knows, “every piece has its own rules, but they’re my rules, and also they are not hard and fast.”

    Relating back to Field Guides, Harper recalls that initially, they were going to be made completely out of yarn. But then she slowly introduced other materials into the sculptures, to see how they could be pushed and grow from her initial concept. Duct tape petals that Harper considered to be too much for some pieces became acceptable for others.

    The rules can change as you go.

    Dana Lynn Harper’s “A Little Too Much” will be on display at the Vanderelli Room, 218 McDowell St. in Franklinton, through December 24. Gallery hours Wednesday – Saturday 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

    For more information, visit danalynnharper.com

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    Ashley Steward
    Ashley Stewardhttps://www.columbusunderground.com/
    Ashley is a contributor for Columbus Underground and a long-time supporter of the arts in Columbus. They studied Fine Art at The Ohio State University and have spoken on the subject of art collecting and NFTs for Pecha Kucha, Wild Goose Creative, and the Greater Columbus Arts Council. They currently serve on the Advisory Board for 934 Gallery and have curated a number of past exhibitions. Ashley also serves as an advisor for Rela Art and sits on the board of Matter News.
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