Harry Schumacher

sculptuur, natuur, installatie, Experimenteel, Conceptueel

Harry Schumacher denounces the way humanity treats nature. We place ourselves above, although we are part of it. We see nature as a laboratory for our benefit. Harry creates a world of works of art to increase our engagement with nature. In the works a representation of human characteristics gets us involved. Separate works zoom into an aspect of our attitude towards nature, but the collection of works forms the whole picture, like an alternative world. Harry Schumacher exhibits in museums, galleries and theme exhibitions all over the world.

**Defence** - The work "Defence" exists of vertebras forming a closed circle. It is the evolution of the human spine into a non-flexible backbone. It should be inevitable if the human race continues in the direction it is going. What kind of creature could live with this kind of spine is left to the imagination. It could be the last configuration before extinction.

**Autumn Leaves** - This work for the entrance of a crematorium forms a bond with the tree reaching through the roof. The tree as a metaphor for life, the reaching is the life fully lived. The memory forms the bond we keep with the deceased The circle of leaves around the tree are the nearest loved ones on whom the deceased made his/hers mark, the blown off leaves represent the wider ambit that has been moved.

**Space and Time** - An organism, just existing of two legs and wearing a diaper is tied to the wall to limit it’s space. The part of the wall it can reach in width is covered in drawings of bodyparts the organism lacks, as a wishful dream in growth. Apart from the limitation in movement the rope also keeps the creature in balance, almost learning it to walk. Worldwide a lot of people have to deal with just the “right” amount of oppression to keep them barely alive, but silent. The row of drawings on the wall will change over time because of the acid-rich paper.

**Chain** - Mixed Media on Felt in Lead, lxw = 44 x 18 cm.

**Arctic** - We use nature as a laboratory which gives us the right to do with it what we want. For an old butcher shop in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, I made a site-specific artwork installation dealing with a specific event. The event is the economical fight for the arctic in the search for oil. A struggle for the preservation of the arctic itself should be a lot more meaningful. The event got in the news when people of Greenpeace were held as hostages by the Russian Federation. The news was no longer about the damage done to the arctic, and so to nature worldwide. Attention needed to go back to the original problem, so I made this installation to pick up the initial debate. There was a lectures by Greenpeace and it got quite a lot of publicity. The installation:?A drilling platform made out of laboratory equipment is placed on a pile of ice. For several weeks the work is shown with blocks of ice as "Arctic". The blocks are refreshed every week. In the shower tray the water mixes with an oily substance. The steel rod in the middle of the iceblocks has influence on the ice by creating "needles" because it's conducting the cold. A floor drain gets rid of the water. After a few weeks the blocks were no longer refreshed and when the ice melted for the last time the work got the title "Memory of the Arctic", a prophecy that could come true. A photoshoot over time got the same title, and so the pictures were all that was left of the original artwork. In the same way that if we do not radically change our way of thinking about the exploitation of nature, in a short while there will also be only a memory left

**Against All Odds** - For the sculpture garden Ravesteyn a site specific work has been made. In memory of all the perished refugees at see a work about the dangerous journey. For a lot of people it is not a choice, but a way of survival. The work exists of a small boat with a proportional huge figurehead to enforce a save journey. No woodcarving but an original tree to hold on to life itself. The boat is connected with the tree by bandages, with fists as a variation on the Hamsa (protection) with Nazar (evil eye). The Hamsa are not suited for the weather influences and will drown.

**A Sphere Is Just An Egg Not Afraid To Fall** - “A Sphere Is Just An Egg Not Afraid To Fall” is about the balance between a sphere and an egg. The egg represents the “reproduction” and the sphere the strive for perfection. The work combines the basic principles of evolution.

**Awareness** - Research how tough can become vulnerable, how the meaning can change by orientation. How just orientation can influence the way we look at things.

**Descending** - Descending (Triptych), Oil on Panel, hxwxd = 3 x 120 x 80 x 6 cm. hxw total = 120 x 300 cm. This triptych shows descending in three stages . The first one is the middle, then the right one and finally the left one. A journey from the endless potential of a deity to the reality of living like a marionet. The cross changes in meaning by changing it’s position and the strings are pulled tighter. A sequence of unrealistic muscle volumes are indicated but not explained in a legend as a protest against a ratio dominated world. You should live like you have the ability of a god, in practice it does not happen often enough.

**Corset** - In the work “Corset” the natural shape of the cone as half an hourglass is manipulated by the metal box. The metal box is an autoclave, used in hospitals to disinfect and clean medical instruments. It influences the sand but is also kept in place by the sand. All the sand found it’s way through the autoclave. It comes out in the four corners on the bottom and when it joins the sand of other corners a “scar” is created which finds it’s way to the bottom of the cone. The history of the sand becomes visible. The performance is a metaphor for nature staying in motion. The sand at the bottom is collected and put back into the autoclave. One round at the bottom and putting the sand back in the box is one cycle of the performance which is repeated over and over. When the sand is collected at the bottom it seems that the sand moves up instead of falling down, against the force of gravity.

**Resources** - Resources, Sculpture, wxhxd = 280 x 70 x 118 cm. In the work “Resources” a constant stationary wave is created to illustrate that movement is necessary for the flexibility of (eco)systems. Nothing is at rest, everything vibrates on a smaller level, even the things we see standing still. The sum of all energy stays the same (the knots in the wave), but the exchange should be flowing. Systems keep themselves in balance as long as there is no artificial sabotage like the human race is exploiting. Nature should stay clean of non-natural elements (bath). In the bath a knotted rope is entwined to make connections with single threats. Single elements are part of bigger systems, forming together even bigger systems, and so on.

**Communication** - Communication, Sculpture, wxhxd = 280 x 108 x 120 cm. Two figures are opposite each other on a vehicle-like construction. Both figures also disagree in words whispering YES and NO through the speakers. An overall flexibility is suggested by the vehicle, but no one will give in an inch, just like often in real life. Two oppinions in black and white, all the gray areas are absent. The audio fragment is played over and over so there will never be any reconciliation, just speaking but not able to listen. Nature versus nurture, reason versus intuition, economy versus the planet. The biggest threats are created by our selves.

**Breathe** - Breathe Solo, Sculptuur, hxbxd = 74 x 26 x 12 cm (Left). Breathe Duo, sculpture, hxwxd = 86 x 32 x 20 cm (right). When we compare the world of fauna (and especially humans) with that of flora, significant differences emerge. Although humans claim a supremacy by acquiring consciousness, we increasingly reveal that consciousness in how we interact with each other. At the same time, we are learning more and more about the world of flora and the collaborative relationships that different species have with each other. I chose to depict this in two works ("Breathe Solo" and "Breathe Duo") to emphasize the differences. In "Breathe Solo," an archetype of a tree is isolated from the outside world, while in "Breathe Duo," two tree structures, despite apparent adversity, manage to connect. The two works exist in contrast of each other, room for dialogue lies inbetween.

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