Brianna Harlan

A Call for Help

Sculpture

"Self help and self-sabotage often war with one another within us. One hand holds the phone to make a call while the other one poises scissors to cut the cord. A red siren sits on top of the phone , waiting to alert you.

This body of work consists mainly of sculpture and the built environment. I aim to give a glimpse of the reality of psychiatric treatment as both the patient and the observer. This exploration of self references surrealism and uses object-relational theory to add layers of meaning and identity to the objects that surround me.

In “A Call for Help” one hand holds the phone to make a call while the other one poises scissors to cut the cord. Each work shows a piece of a treatment experience that literally overwhelms life as it was formerly known. The collection is a look at the effects of psychiatric norms on everyday life, grounded in an ungrounded sense of self."

– Brianna Harlan

About the artist

Brianna Harlan

Brianna Harlan is a multiform artist and organizer. She works in community intervention and re-contextualized objects to innovate on how sociopolitical identity affects health, selfhood, and community. Her debut solo exhibition was a non commercial showing in New York at Field Projects Gallery. She opened her solo exhibition “Glass House” at Oklahoma State University in January 2022 and “A Collection” at Eastern Kentucky University in February 2022. She has been the artist in residence or fellowship at The Laundromat Project, SECAC, Oxbow, Materia Abierta, and the DreamYard Project. In 2020 she collaborated with 21c museum hotels, 4th wall, and Breonna Taylor’s family to create an augmented reality memorial monument. Brianna has been published in several forms as a voice in cultural activism nationally and internationally, including in ArtNews for her equity in art report. She completed her MFA in Art and Social Action at Queens College and was named a Young Distinguished Alumni by her alma mater, Hanover College. Brianna also works as a creative, community organizer and strategist for several community initiatives around the country including City University of New York’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Incubator and the Studio Museum in Harlem and MoMA’s public programs fellowship.