Bateman Crawfort

FEATHERS

Harris’s hand-cut leather feathers are an ongoing and evolving body of work that began in 2015. Over the ensuing years, their production has become a regular practice—and as with many committed endeavors—has become a container for noticing change. For Harris, this change is manifest in both the shape and refinement of the feathers and the qualities of his thought processes.

Collectively, they make something of an odometer for psychic and spiritual evolution, their forms showing a subtle, slow, and ongoing transformation. The feathers also hold deeply personal significance, rooted in loss and endurance. Harris’s mother, Glynis, began collecting white feathers after the passing of her own mother, seeing them as signs of angelic presence. Harris recalls finding these feathers tucked into picture frames or perched on window sills—quiet tokens of her belief in unseen connections. After Glynis’s death in 2015, Harris began crafting his own feathers as a way to honor her memory and reflect on the enduring bond they shared.

In 2017, Michael Howells, a respected production designer and mentor figure, commissioned 200 feathers for Karl Lagerfeld’s Christmas installation at Claridge’s Hotel in London. This marked a turning point in the visibility of Harris’s work and remains a meaningful endorsement of his practice.

NESTS

The Nest installations were developed following a trip to Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park in 2022 where Harris encountered intricately constructed, multi-storey, multi-generational nests made by weaver birds. These sociable creatures construct sprawling, suspended structures capable of housing up to 100 pairs across generations. For Harris, the nests are not only architectural marvels but also reminders from nature of potential models for harmonious ways of living—powerful metaphors for intergenerational cooperation and collective effort. Inspired by these organic forms, Harris began creating his own Nest works using Raffia Straw. It is a process of sorting, knotting, winding, crocheting, and latch-hooking—repetitive actions that are at once grounding and expansive. Harris views these practices as opportunities for communal engagement, where making becomes a shared experience shaped by dialogue and curiosity.

In a world increasingly dominated by digital realities and ecological crises, the Nest works call on us to reconnect with the natural world. They invite reflection on the fragile structures of nature and the lessons of cooperation and resilience embedded within it.

For all photos

Nest installation view from those are the skeletons
that spoke to me - solo exhibition, Kulturraum, Berlin
2023
Raffia, wood and steel.

EMBROIDERY

Harris’s skeleton embroidery is drawn from woodcut designs created by Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Dance of Death. Death is presented here as a busy and cheekily jubilant skeleton which creeps up on unsuspecting figures. Whilst the skeleton is an evocative emulation of the end of life, it is also the very anatomical organisation that gives our bodies structure. Stripped of context this feels to be almost a riddle about fearing living itself, or celebrating that life inherently must contain an eventual end; dance on!

DRAWINGS

The Spiral Drawings are a series of line drawings made with botanical inks on vintage graph paper sourced from Berlin’s flöhmarkts. Harris undertakes these drawings as a regular 10, 20 or 30 minute meditative practice where each drawing emerges differently and organically with time, tension, attention and breath. Rather than artistry or design, he is interested in how these labours —their specific conditions and states of mind— leave behind a trace like a watermark, topographical map or the rings of a tree trunk and how these images are then potentially aids to contemplation.

For Harris, working with his hands is a devotional practice of embedding time, focus and breath, of working out practical solutions in flow with mental processes; an act of grounding and transformation which moves him onward into a future. Running through these works is a quiet insistence on the change that comes through commitment, process and practice.

Masks

The Masks series is a testament to Harris’s exploration of transformation, materiality, and alchemical themes. Each mask embodies a unique narrative, woven together through personal memory, symbolic resonance, and tactile craftsmanship. These works draw viewers into cycles of life, death, and renewal, where sensory engagement meets profound metaphor.

Silks Mask (for Mercury): Made with embroidery silks inherited from Harris’s late mother, this mask reflects themes of impermanence, memory, and legacy. The delicate threads convey the fragile yet enduring bonds between generations, transforming personal grief into collective reflection.

Roggen Mask (for Sulphur): Constructed using Roggen grain, this mask evokes chaos and transformation. Its organic textures and dynamic forms mirror the natural processes of decay and renewal, inviting contemplation of life’s volatile and generative forces.

Salt Mask: Incorporating crystallized salt, this mask symbolizes preservation and grounding. Its textured surface echoes geological formations, balancing the series’ themes of transformation with stability and endurance.

Each mask is paired with a distinct olfactory composition created in collaboration with Raer Scents. These scents amplify the sensory experience, bridging the material and ephemeral to evoke emotional and instinctive responses. Together, the masks form a series that transcends their physical presence, offering layered reflections on change, continuity, and the interconnectedness of existence.