LITHOGRAPHS & more

tHE TAMARIND INSTITUTE

In 1969, Harris received a fellowship from the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in Los Angeles and while there created the Shut-in Suite. Harris states, "I lived alone in a rundown LA apartment amidst my own disorder. I had not intended to make a Shut-in Suite . . . there was just no time to go out into the world. I shuttled between the apartment and the print center for three months. At the end of the second month I realized that my world was first, a crummy apartment and second, my imagination."

Harris' crisp images in the Shut-in Suite are still-lifes seen through a zoom lens with views cropped and flattened. In some cases single objects are the focus, assuming an iconic character, like the lamp in Left a Light On. In others, the combination of flat patterns and implied dimensions causes imagery to shift between an abstract and a representational identity, as in Lawn Party. To achieve the unusual effects found in the Shut-in Suite, Harris drew on the stone, aluminum, or zinc plates using a combination of lithographic pencil, Harris Triple Ink, asphaltum, and lithotine. Harris also introduced collage elements of hand-cut self-adhesive foil and vinyl.