| Raymond Salvatore Harmon | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Raymond Salvatore Harmon |
| Born | April 7, 1974 Jackson, Michigan |
| Nationality | United States |
| Field | Experimental film, record production, painter, composer |
| Influenced by | Harry Everett Smith, Stan Brakhage, Thomas Vaughan, William Gibson, Nam June Paik, Joseph Cornell |
Raymond Salvatore Harmon (born April 7, 1974) is an American media artist, painter, and filmmaker. As a graffiti artist Harmon has used the tags BETA (1994–2001) and RSH (2001–current). His street work has appeared in Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, New York, Brooklyn, London, Berlin, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Zagreb among others.[1]
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Born in Jackson, Michigan in 1974 Raymond Salvatore Harmon has lived widely throughout the US (New York City; Savannah, Georgia; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Louisville, Kentucky; Eugene, Oregon, among many other locations).[2]
Over the course of the past ten years Harmon has been a proponent of non object oriented art. Utilizing new media, web based content and interactive architecture in coordination with public performance, graffiti style ad bombing, and web based social engineering Harmon's work has carved out an over arching form of contemporary media insurgency.[1]
Harmon's work as a painter references organic yet abstract forms, often very gestural in design. Harmon paints dominantly in the flat (on the ground) walking around the painting in order to remove the "this side up" perspective of painting. His graffiti based outdoor paintings are often very large and can span entire roadways, bridge underpasses and empty lots.
Harmon's film work is abstract, often accompanied by his own electronic compositions as well as those of his various collaborators. His recent works include spray paint based painting, full scale immersive video and sound environments, large format digital prints that are then hand manipulated and painted on, and live video performances. Compared to experimental film maker Stan Brakhage,[3] Harmon's use of abstract imagery is more directly influenced by the works of Harry Smith.[4]
His work has been reviewed in numerous magazines/publications, including the LA Times, TimeOut London, Chicago Tribune, Signal to Noise, The Wire, New York Times, All About Jazz, Downbeat, Jazztimes, and Foxy Digitalis.
His work has been presented and screened at hundreds of festivals and galleries throughout the world including – The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Unsound Festival – Kraków, Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, Copenhagen International Documentary Festival, Artist Television Access, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Cement Media Festival, Athens International Film Festival, RAW Tempel – Berlin, Axiom Theater, Northwest Film Forum, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and The Horse Hospital, London.[5][6]
As a record producer Harmon has worked with highly acclaimed artists such as Chicago Underground Trio, Andrew Bird, Jim Baker, Josh Abrams, Rob Mazurek, Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre, as well as collaborated on projects with Alan Licht, David Grubbs, Wolfeyes, the Magik Markers, and Spires that in the Sunset Rise.[7] Additionally Harmon has performed improvised video with numerous musical groups from a diverse background including Exploding Star Orchestra,[8] Rob Mazurek, Blood on the Wall, Diplo, Wolf Parade, Chicago Underground Trio, Birth Refusal, Mandarin Movie, Dave Phillips, HATI, Mikrokolektyw, and Jason Forrest.
In February 2001 Harmon was invited to be a guest of the Cement Media Festival in Eindhoven, Netherlands. He presented his large scale video installation Dreamlife of Sleeping Buildings at the Technical University of Eindhoven. This curated installation piece included video works by Brian Frye, Kenneth Eisenstein, Eve Heller, Sean Capone, Alexander Horn, Andrew Personnette, Suji Lee, and Randy Lee Sutherland.[9]
In April 2007 he celebrated the release of Chronicle, a feature length music performance of the Chicago Underground Trio. Which had its theatrical premiere at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival in November.[6]
On March 7, 2008 Harmon presented a 3 channel video performance of Aleister Crowleys Rites of Eleusis.[10]
On November 11, 2008 Harmon premiered Hypnotic Brutality, a new music performance film with the American noise band Wolf Eyes, at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.[5]
On September 21, 2009 Harmon's video for Thom Yorke's "The Hollow Earth" was released. The film utilizes images of the street artist Banksy.[11] The video garnered heavy press attention (NME, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork[12]) due to a press release stating erroneously that it was an 'official' video. YouTube pulled the video from distribution after 3 days (and 52,400 views) due to copyright claims by Yorke.
In June 2010 Harmon was invited to create a 650-square-foot (60 m2) graffiti mural for Upfest in Bristol UK.
On June 17, 2010 a program of Harmon's transcendental films titled "Dweller on the Threshold: 3 Films of Transcendence" screened at London's Barbican Centre as part of the Knowledge of the Hidden festival.[13]
In October, 2010 Delmark Records released the feature length performance film Dew Point with the Polish band Mikrokolektyw - produced and directed by Harmon and including Harmon's abstract urban landscape film "Sound in Motion".[14]
In November 2010 Harmon was a member of the jury for the Sound and Vision award of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.[15]
On November 2010 Harmon's film First Corruption screened as part of the Mediamorfosi festival in Portici, Italy.[16]
In April 2011 Harmon presented "The Revelations of Maria Sabina" a ritual of light based around the work of Mexican curandera Maria Sabina at the Ambulante Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico.[17]
On July 13, 2011 Harmon released his book "BOMB: A manifesto of art terrorism" via his website.[18]
| Title | Venue | Location | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprayed On In Light | Outerpretation Media | Chicago, IL | Sep 1997 | interactive video performance |
| Les Fantomes de Lumiere | Chicago Underground Film Festival | Chicago, IL | Aug 2000 | film improvisation |
| Subliminal Scores for Improvisational Spaces | Around the Coyote Festival | Chicago, IL | Sep 2000 | |
| Dreamlife of Sleeping Buildings | Technical University Eindhoven | Eindhoven, Holland | Feb 2001 | video installation[9] |
| Oneirographers Closet | Feitico Gallery | Chicago, IL | Aug 2001 | micro-installation exhibition |
| Isolated Instances | Open End Gallery | Chicago, IL | Feb 2004 | |
| Isolated Instances | Heaven Gallery | Chicago, IL | Jul 2004 | |
| Transcendental Territories | Inspire Fine Art | Chicago | Apr 2007 | |
| Dweller on the Threshold | Secret Project Robot Gallery | Brooklyn NY | May 2009 | [19] |
| Title | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Dynamics of Social Change: The De-evolution of Art in America | Olivet College, Olivet, MI | July 1993 |
| Environmental Sound Design and the Virtual Installation | Jackson Community College, Jackson, MI | November 1997 |
| Cumulative Response: The Manifestation of Technology in Public Art | New School of Art, Marin, CA | October 1998 |
| Deviational Iconography and the Blank Screen: A Search for the Pure Image | Carnagie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA | May 1999 |
| Unpremeditated Appearance : Context and Content in Film Presentation | Around the Coyote Arts Festival – Chicago, IL | May 2000 |
| Implementing a Dialog: Proposal for Corporate Curatorial Program of Media Art | Royal Philips Laboratories, Eindhoven, Holland | August 2000 |
| Sublimate the Pretext: Delineation of Familiar Architectural Roles in our Environment | Cement Media Festival – Eindhoven, Holland | February 2001 |
| Evolution vs. Revolution: Socio-communicative Developments Inside the Art Paradigm | Expressions School of New Media – Oakland, CA | June 2002 |
| An Empire of Signs Without Meaning: Marshall McLuhan and the Media Revolution | University of Oregon, Cultural Forum – Eugene, OR | October 2003 |
| Transcendental Cinema: Abstract Light and the Nature of Visual Meditation | New Nothing Cinema, San Francisco CA | July 2007 |
| Painted in Light: Experimental Film and the Advent of Improvised Cinema | Goldsmiths University, London, UK | February 2008 |
| Painted in Light: Experimental Film and the Advent of Improvised Cinema | University of Lodz, Poland | December 2007 |
| On the Nature of Light: The Cinematic Experience as Occult Ritual | Secret Project Robot Gallery, Brooklyn NY | May 17, 2009 |
Harmon has worked as a record producer for over a decade, primarily for the Delmark Records label.