Higher Power

The force behind Higher Powers, an exhibition, film and concert that explores the meaning of luck, success and fate is Peter Harris, a London-based fine artist. Harris began work on the film six years ago and it led him to contact various individuals who possessed what could be considered a higher power. This included the granddaddy of dub Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, a visionary musician who was seminal in the widespread growth of reggae music during the late 60s and early 70s. The meeting led to a collaboration of drawings, paintings and performance between the two, combining Peter’s vision and Lee’s almost shamanistic powers. The private view in Notting Hill's Tabernacle on September 10 introduces their collaboration of drawings and paintings and Lee Perry will be performing live musical support for the film with Adrian Sherwood. We spoke to Harris at The Arts Club in Mayfair about the collaboration...
 
Dazed Digital: Tell us a little about yourself as an artist
Peter Harris: I went to art college quite late. I'm a self-taught painter and I work a lot with identity and the idea that there is no copyright on who you are. I'm a non-performer so I use other people to say what I think, using their personas and interpretations as an extension of who I am. A lot of it is about a self-induced exorcism, taking the negative and reproducing it as a positive.

DD: How did your collaboration with Lee come about?
Peter Harris: Lee was one of the people I wanted to interview because the theme of the film I was making was based on higher powers. There are loads of different interpretations of higher power. Someone might be an authoritarian higher power like a policeman. Someone might be a spiritual higher power like a priest. Someone might think they possess higher powers like Uri Geller. Lee Perry is the archetype of the mad art genius.

DD: You didn't start out with a plan to do drawings and paintings together, how did that happen?
Peter Harris: I had done these money paintings years ago where I took a bunch of five pound notes and painted little paradise scenes on them. The idea was to sell the money for more money (before the Chapmans did it!). Because Lee's so into money, I gave him one of the five-pound notes as a gift and he put it in his Bible. Then I did another for one for his hats and Mireille suggested I do some hats with him. I thought that was sort of his thing really. I didn't want to do something that was so him, so I said why don’t we do some drawings instead. 

DD: How did things develop?
Peter Harris: Obviously, when I first arrived at his place to do the drawings I was a bit nervous. There’s always some mad drama going on in his house. They don’t get up until quite late, so I just sat around feeling like, 'What's going to happen?'  He's got these strange kind of sculptural witchcrafty things in the driveway and this mad dungeon space, which is his studio. It was quite warm and there were all these spiders and insects everywhere. There was this filmmaker there, a German guy who’s been filming him for ten years. It was really strange, with the filmmaker and the insects everywhere. Lee doesn't talk much and he always did this thing where he had one CD with about five songs on it on repeat the whole time. For the paintings he did the same thing except with one song he painted called 'Rastafarian In Hollywood' It’s a really obscene song. He said, 'Peter you must make sure they play this at the private view just before I come on stage.' It turns out this is his higher power mantra. I heard this song about a thousand times, so that was a bit odd. It's all kind of freaky. You start to wonder if he’s doing some kind of spell. Then he walked amongst the paintings with his large crucifix and he began thematically repeating things – the left foot had to be drawn around and then yellow star shapes came in. Then he stepped on a large tube of yellow paint and it squirted out over this image of a bowing lamb before the devil and this released the tension. As soon as the yellow paint squirted everything flowed and we began pouring wine on the canvases. The wine splashed in suggestive shapes. The first was like a lion and the next was like a vampire bat. It became about accident and chance, maybe the ultimate form of higher power.

DD: It made me wonder about just letting go to a positive higher power...
Peter Harris: Yes, Lee's really into that. He's a Buddhist. He doesn't even hurt the mosquitoes. You can't harm anything. He’s really into that stuff. He just lives in the moment – instant input, instant output. He's in the moment. He’s up until about 6am. His energy is phenomenal.

DD: Did you come to any conclusions about what higher power is to you personally?Peter Harris: Interestingly, what resonates most with me now came from Uri Geller. He said something like: "No matter how hard you try or push things won't happen because there's a time for things to happen." I suppose before I was trying to make a life for myself, using art on my own terms, trying to change the rules of the world, which is hopelessly naive and stupid. Because when you see people dying very young and think what did they do with their life, I mean life is really short, so you have to do what you want even if it means no money or whatever. Art is a good medium for revealing your fears. And making yourself vulnerable. Now I'm more detached more accepting of things.

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 September 10 2009‘Higher Powers’ is presented by Paddy Barstow & Eazy Bailey