Up close with Newell Harry
About Newell Harry
Born 1972 in Sydney, Australia
Lives and works in Sydney
Newell Harry’s work stems from the experiences and observances of travelling between Australia, Vanuatu and South Africa, and is caught up in the vernacular words, phrases and textures of these distinct places. Visiting Cape Town in 2006, he began to combine the Afrikaans and ‘coloured’ slang of his grandmother with Bislama, the national pidgin dialect spoken in Vanuatu, which he had encountered while living periodically in Port Vila. It was around this time that language, along with a mischievous, subversive sense of humour, began to feature as a key element in his work. The sardonic messages and word plays on Harry’s gift mats are woven from pandanus plants, traditionally made by women in Vanuatu to use in place of monetary exchange, trade, or as gifts at ceremonial occasions. In a related neon work, Harry transforms the statement ‘The natives are restless’ into the anagrams ‘Nerv[e]less rats hesitate’ and ‘When venereal theists rest’.