Professor Jake Harvey was appointed Head of the School of Sculpture at ECA in 1997 and is director of the postgraduate programme. He is a practising sculptor involved in making objects that operate within an elemental abstract language. By combining concept, material and form he aims to make sculptures that possess qualities of timelessness and amalgams of meaning that stimulate the senses, basic instincts and emotions of the viewer. The Scottish landscape, archaeology, artefacts and symbolism are relevant touchstones in his practice, and he works predominantly with earth materials such as stone, clay and metal.
“I find myself attracted to the point of obsession, in those indecipherable qualities that tools and artefacts seem to possess; qualities that appear to exist beyond the physical nature of the object itself. A tool made by man has the mark of the maker, a second trace is added by the user and a third level of memory is attached as the form is further shaped by function”.
He has exhibited widely, and in recent years has shown in America, Japan, Germany and Holland. Commissioned work includes the Hugh MacDiarmid Memorial and a major sculpture installation for the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. In July 2003 the lottery funded collaborative art & architecture project AN TURAS he has been involved with, as 'lead artist' for the island of Tiree off the west coast of Scotland will be completed.
He is currently preparing new work for a solo exhibition with Art First, Cork St., London in September 2004.
Publications include North (Pier Gallery, Stromness, 1993) Jake Harvey - Sculpture 1972-93 (Talbot Rice Art Centre, Edinburgh, 1993), Ground (Crystal Gallery, Morioka, Japan, 1998) Signifier (Art first, London, 1999)