John Wood et Paul Harrison

Born respectively in 1969 in Hong-Kong and 1966 in Great Britain, both John Wood and Paul Harrison are graduates from the Bath College of Higher Education and now live and work in the UK (in Bristol and Birmingham).
Their artistic collaboration dates from 1993 and they are represented by the following galleries: Martine Aboucaya, (Paris), Von Bartha Garage, Basle (Switzerland), Vera Cortes Art Agency, (Lisbon), Studio Trisorio, Naples and Rome (Italy) and Caroll/Fletcher, (London).

Statement
Working together since 1993, John Wood and Paul Harrison are essentially creators of video performances, in which they often make an appearance. They have exhibited in Europe and the US and their works are part of prestigious collections such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Tate or the MoMA. The use of a static shot, minimal aesthetics, the staging of associations of everyday objects and low-tech visual tricks, their own physical presence in their work, the creation of derisory mini-actions whose result wavers between an out-and-out failure and a random success are the main characteristics of their artistic process.

Night and Day, 2008
Video HD
24’18’’
Edition 5/5
Acquisition in 2010

Night and Day makes use of an enclosed space as its backdrop, punctuated by the turning on and off of a light, which allows for a series of apparitions and playful experiments. In a sort of learned treatise full of references to art history, John Wood and Paul Harrison deliver a raw, dark and turbulent oeuvre bordering on the more controlled or civilized aesthetic of their previous productions, yet equally rigorous in its form and expressing the same impertinence.