Ctrl.Alt.Shift's Claire Williams meets the artistic talent behind BECKERHARRISON - a collaboration that combines photography and graffiti to address social and political issues throughout the world.

BECKERHARRISON is a unique collaboration between London-based mixed media artists Carolin Becker and Simon Harrison. Together, they create innovative artwork to showcase important social and political issues:  Simon overlays Carolin’s fine art photographs with his intricate graffiti and spray techniques - ultimately changing the meaning of the picture. What was originally a perhaps serene moment in time morphs with Harrison’s clever paintwork into something altogether more sinister and unnerving.

'A young boy... his out-stretched arm turned into a machine gun'

For example, a photograph of a young Indian boy running along the street in colour is expertly altered by Simon Harrison to include, in the young boy’s blackened shadow, his out-stretched arm turned into a machine gun. In this way, the artwork becomes a platform for raising important questions about our present society.  

The background story behind your most recent collection, ‘What a Difference a Day Makes’, is extraordinary (Becker and Harrison visited Jaipur in India just before it got bombed in 2008). Can you elaborate on your experiences in India and how the bombings changed the meaning behind your pictures? 

Carolin: What happened in Jaipur was absolutely shocking. We had been there for a few days and experienced such warmth, hospitality and peace. We were very impressed with the people we had met. Our story was actually going to be about the role of Hinduism in daily life and all our photographs were taken in an entirely positive and peaceful, even spiritual context. The bombings took place hours after we had left and we did not actually record any of the horror of that day. But it put the photographs we had taken into an entirely different context and we saw the possibility of using Simon’s graffiti to show different, maybe less naïve and more brutal scenarios for the same innocent children, defenseless old ladies and other people we had met.

What processes do you go through to achieve the final art piece?

Simon: That will obviously depend on the image we’re working on. The 'LUMINOSITY' series was almost an exercise in meditation. Carolin’s photographs were very sensual, personal and delicate. They needed to be approached with extreme consideration and there was no margin for error. Each piece had only one outcome which was correct and I needed to sit and wait and look at the image until it finally revealed itself.

With ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’, we had more latitude to interpret the pictures how we wished. Paradoxically, despite being thematically aggressive, they were more forgiving in their possibilities for interpretation. It’s as if the extreme nature of the very different projects forced a polar response from us. The ephemeral beauty of LUMINOSITY engendered rigid responsive discipline. The violent extremist politics of ‘What A Difference A Day Makes’ allowed for more freedom of expression.

"We have experienced poverty and corruption on most of our trips... It’s a reality of life and frankly, you probably don’t have to travel that far to find it"

Has anything you’ve witnessed changed the motivation behind your art or changed your views on poverty and corruption?

Simon: We have experienced poverty and corruption on most of our trips, in South America, Northern Africa and India. It’s a reality of life and frankly, you probably don’t have to travel that far to find it. We are fascinated with how people deal with this reality, how they cope, what they do and how they find purpose and happiness within it. You always find a lot of children in our work and we like to show their relative freedom, their positive spirit and the possibilities on what might happen to them: Will they follow their parents’ path or will they find a way to make things different? How will they go about this? Education? Violence? Religion?

Taking a photograph showing a current reality and then using graffiti to show different futures for the scene we have recorded is not just a way to combine two media but also to project an infinite number of possibilities onto a real situation.

What do you hope will come of your artwork ultimately?

Carolin: We would like to think that our work touches people and provokes thought. We want it to be beautiful and for lots of people to want to look at it for more than one minute because that is the only way you can really reach people. Our images are improbable and hopefully they raise some questions: Is this real? How did they do this? What did they see when they created this and what does it mean? We are fascinated by the reactions we get, the interpretations and the questions and hopefully that is a sign that what we are doing actually works.

Simon: We all see so many pictures every day, many of them horrible and desperate but we tend to be numb and pass over them in seconds. War, bombs, hunger, protest, crime, earthquakes and disease are in the papers every day but the photographs don’t move us anymore. That’s hard to change but it’s worth a try. Because the graffiti changes the photographs and adds features which don’t occur in reality the final picture creates a sort of ‘double-take’. That way we hope to give people pause for thought and draw them in.

"We all see so many pictures every day, many of them horrible and desperate but we tend to be numb and pass over them in seconds. War, bombs, hunger, protest, crime, earthquakes and disease.... but the photographs don't move us anymore"

What do you hope to gain from displaying your art?

Carolin: Our first project was entirely for charity and we were able to make something happen: With our ‘Atlas Angels’ series we helped raise the money for an all-girls boarding school for children in rural Morocco who otherwise would have had no chance to get a proper education. However, we do need our work to sustain itself and we do want to make enough money to help fund further projects.

Simon: It’s an important part of the feedback we get that people are prepared to come and see our work and spend money on it, hang it on the wall. It’s a form of validation which also motivates us to do more.

Poverty is one of the social and economical issues you raise in your artwork. What are your views on combating poverty in general?

Simon: Most of the world lives in poverty, certainly by our Western standards. And it’s not just an emerging market phenomenon; it’s right around the corner even here in London. It is not something we expect to do much about but there is something worth recording; in most places where we encounter poverty on our travels we also encounter a lot of freedom and happiness.

Carolin: It really puts things into perspective: We experience this extraordinary contrast between the wealth of Central London and the places we go to and on balance people are far more free, happy and philosophical there. Art can create awareness, inspire debate and point a finger at corruption. I am not sure how effective it can really be but in conjunction with journalism and the honest people in politics, international law and humanitarian organisations can play a role. We have a voice and we should use it.

'What a Difference A Day Makes' by BECKERHARRISON is on show at The Outsiders, 5-30 October 2010.

Words: Claire Williams
Photos: BECKERHARRISON

For more information please visit BECKERHARRISON.com.