Ashley Harris
Artworks
Dwell Within the Light traces the Park’s evolution from its origins as the ancestral land of the Lenape, Carnarsie, and Matinecock People, through its phase as a dumpsite, to its ultimate transformation into an arts space. The concrete bases display gradient hues and impressions of elements such as rope, native grasses, and leaves collected from the vibrant ecosystem of the Park. These sculptures, forged from a fusion of found materials, pivot and morph in response to the site’s natural forces–wind, rain, and human interaction. Together, these works intertwine narratives of history and landscape through their unique material interconnections.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ashley Harris and Ndivhuho Rasengani began collaborating on performance and installation works in 2019 at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Together, they think through concepts such as movement and curation of space. They refer to each other as material alchemists, questioning and experimenting with the properties of industrial materials such as glass, metal and concrete. They both have a background in architecture, which informs their inquiries about scale and material relationships.
Ashley Harris and Ndivhuho Rasengani graduated from RISD with an MFA in Glass and Sculpture respectively. Ashley recently completed a year-long residency at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Ndivhuho recently completed a two year teaching fellowship through AICAD at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both were awarded the Pilchuck Glass School Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2022.
Ashley Harris (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Rochester, New York. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Architecture in 2017. In 2021, she received her MFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design. Upon graduating with her MFA, she participated in the MASS MoCA’s Studio Residency program. Ashley was a 2022 Pilchuck Glass School Fellow and the 2022-2023 Glass Studio Artist in Residence at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Ndivhuho Rasengani is a visual artist, designer, and AICAD Teaching Fellow at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He earned an MFA Sculpture in 2021 at Rhode Island School of Design and his Honours in Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 2018.