Royal College of Art (group residency) / Harry Walker

photo Simon Beckmann

Royal College of Art (group residency) / Harry Walker / sculpture

Harry Walker is an artist originally from the West Midlands, now living in London. His practice centres on perception and presence, how we look, how we stay with something, and what reveals itself through an encounter.

He makes work that asks to have time spent with it. The aim is not to deliver an idea but to create a situation where perception slows and becomes conscious of itself.

He is interested in the tension between large systems, cosmic, scientific, informational, and the lived reality of being human within them.

We are surrounded by scale, data, acceleration and fragmentation, yet experience remains local and embodied. His work tries to hold that gap open rather than resolve it. He wants the instability of that position to remain visible, for the trouble to reveal itself through the work.

He builds structures and perceptual surfaces that function more like instruments or fields than representations. The work focuses on sensorial and phenomenological effects, creating visual conditions that shift.

There is a balance between control and uncertainty. Systems, calibration and repeatable processes matter in his making, but so does threshold, the point where order gives way to atmosphere.

He is interested in trying to irrationally rationalise the irrational, using measured structure to approach experiences that are sensory, unstable and difficult to fix in language.

The work stays direct and materially honest. He values clarity, restraint and precision without overstatement. Each piece is built to act as both mirror and lens, reflecting our perceptual condition while sharpening it. Presence itself becomes the medium.

In partnership with the Royal College of Art, this group residency at Joya: AiR was curated by guest artist Annie Edwards (GBA 26, MA RCA, BFA) www.annieedwards.com