Versia Harris – Merely a Chimera, 2015 (detail)
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Bio
Versia Harris lives and works in the country of her birth, Barbados. She received her BFA in Studio Art in 2012 from the Barbados Community College and was awarded the Lesley’s Legacy Foundation Award, an annual prize given to the top graduate. She participated in her first residency with Projects and Space in 2011 and has since completed a residency with another local organization, Fresh Milk, followed by a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and residencies at the Instituto Buena Bista, Curacao, and Alice Yard, Trinidad in late 2013. In 2014, Versia’s work was featured in the IVth Moscow International Biennial for Young Art themed ‘A Time for Dreams’. Her animation They Say You Can Dream a Thing More Than Once was awarded Best New Media Film at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in 2014. Versia tackles perceptions of fantasy in contrast to the reality of her invented characters.
Versia Harris – Merely a Chimera, 2015 (detail)
About the Work
“Fantasy is defined as unrealistic mental images on which one repeatedly dwells, that reflect one’s conscious or unconscious desires. These images do not always stay as thoughts in the mind but often manifest into physical objects/pictures, actions, words or behaviours. In my work I think about how fantasy can manifest and how the reality of an individual may be pushed or bent. A chimera is a single organism made up of genetically disparate cells, making it possible for the organism to have two opposing bodily features. It can also be defined as a thing wished for but is impossible to achieve. This series documents a creature taking the various shapes of things observed in a continuous search for the ultimate identity. The work is built on the mysterious, the unclear, and undefined world of fantasy and the act of daydreaming.”
Versia Harris – Merely a Chimera, 2015 (detail)
