Dan Harvey's early work Archive

Dan Harvey’s early work Archive

Dan Harvey, sculptor, born in Dorking, UK 1959. Studied sculpture at Cardiff College of Art, in 1979 – 1981, then undertook his MA at Royal College of Art, 1983–86 (1st Class Hons Degree). He participated in mixed shows included LG at RCA Galleries, 1984; Outside Sculpture Show, Camden Lock, 1985; Vanessa Devereux Gallery, 1986; and Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 1988 & an show at Artsite Gallery, Bath 1987. In 1985 he was the co-founder of the Laboritorio Aperto in Bussana Vecchia, Italy. He had 2 solo shows at Birch & Conran Fine Art, Dean Street ,Soho, London in 1987 & 1988. In 1988 his sculpture was included on the sets of Peter Greenaway’s film Drowning by Numbers, and was subsequently involved with the Greenway’s films The Cook ,the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and also the creation of the books in Prospero’s Books and the grass set for ‘Caliban’s Pit’ in the same film. In 1989 he created a growing book and the set around the ‘Dream’ sequence in Derek Jarman’s War Requiem. The grass book is on display at Derek’s former home and retreat, Prospect Cottage in Dungeness

His early sculptural work often included natural found objects and bones, the focus of these works was very much around Harvey’s perception of the natural world, and mankind’s position with in it. The use of bones to him spoke very much about life – so he started to introduce living elements within these creations. His first ‘grass works’ being a Bible – open at the parable of the ‘growing of the seed’ the water damaged bible had been found on waste land outside Cardiff prison – he sprinkled grass seen between the pages and continued to water it) – the grass grew through the pages and consumed the book (1980). And a sheep’s skull drill with hundreds of holes and individual grass seeds planted in them (1980) His early sculptural works are in many private and public collections including the Royal College of Art & the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.