Thursday, December 12, 2024

Harry Moritz

In my work, I use manufacturing to reflect on human-machine dynamics, sexuality and gender queerness. I think about how the workforces’ relationship to their machinery lacks heartfelt conscious reflection. Personality and machinery are often separate. I challenge this, making work that shows how humanity, personal identity and machinery can be a reflection of one another. Human sexuality and machine movements are similar in their dynamics and relationships. In my latest body of work, I use my lathe to produce phallic objects that explore gender queer motifs relating to the machinery I work with and my own sexual expression. My work sifts through old places in our culture.Factories that have seen many years and parts made.

After attending Pratt Institute for sculpture, I received my Machinist Certificate from Housatonic College in Bridgeport CT. My interest in machine work is the catalyst for how I understand the world. Time was always an interest that I would express in mechanical terms. Eventually I began making clocks out of aluminum discs. Then I was in the group exhibition, Horology at Jack Hanley Gallery in 2019. My studio is in Brooklyn, NY, where I have a machine shop to produce my work. Crossdressing is something I have been getting into lately. Exploring femininity has been very expansive for my work. I am more in touch with who I am, which is inspiring me to make work that I’ve never made before.

Note – here is the link to the online show mentioned in the interview.
Also, here is a link to the book mentioned in the interview.
Aqueous (May 2020)
Bottle Butt Plugs (April 2020)
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2 COMMENTS

  1. […] Harry Moritz spoke to us from Brooklyn, New York where he lives two blocks from his studio in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Moritz works with machinery in his studio and during the pandemic he has been making metal work for various clients including brass doorknobs. This is the first time that the artist has experienced a period of time where every day is structured the way he wants, he is able to work in his studio more and the city is quiet and shut down. Although the city itself feels alien, life in his studio feels normal to Moritz who moved to his studio and into the neighborhood about six months before the lock down began. For years, Moritz has been exploring his own gender and sexuality and is now creating work based on this exploration, rooted in queer porn images inside aluminum bottles. For a conversation about this work, listen to the complete interview. […]

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