news
Have you found a magnet from the Fear Not project? Please let us know!
participate
You can participate in Fear Not Indirect Mail by writing "Have no fear"
on a piece of paper and mailing it to the Fear Not Project at 239 Page Street,
San Francisco, CA 94102.
Indirect Mail will be delivered in the Bay Area in winter of 2009/2010 and in Dallas and Austin, Texas, in spring of 2010.
You can participate in Fear Not Radio by calling 1-888-END2FEAR (1-888-363-2332) and leaving a message saying "Don't be afraid." See more info and samples of Fear Not Radio.
why
In the fall of 2007 I read an
interview
in The Sun magazine with Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue, also a
former Catholic priest. The interview focused on questions of spirituality
and creativity, and along the way mentioned that the phrase "Do not be afraid"
appears 366 times in the Bible.
That started the seed of an idea to create a Bible that only
said "Do not be afraid," especially one that was altered by hand, maybe a bit similar to the way
government documents are redacted.
That combined with something I had
wanted to address for quite a while - the prevalence of fear-oriented messages
in our culture - and I wound up with the idea of creating a multimedia
environment that would surround the viewer with anti-fear messages - the Fear
Not project.
Sadly, I found out recently that John O'Donohue passed away in January of 2008.
what
Fear Not currently consists of the Fear Not Library and Fear Not Radio, and now also
includes Fear Not Indirect Mail. Additions to the project in many other media are planned,
including Fear Not TV, due out later this year. For updates,
the Fear Not mailing list or just keep checking back.
where
Fear Not has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center,
at a.Muse Gallery and Root Division in San Francisco, and at the Brisbane Public Library.
From Artweek, March 2009 issue: "...Jennifer Maria Harris presented the Fear Not
Library (2008), a wonderful collection of books, the insides of which have been almost completely
covered in white-out, with the few uncovered words spelling out phrases such as 'do not be scared' or
'never fear.' Harris's work presents the labor of hand-whiting each page, while revealing a kind of
literary unconscious, as the textual fragments remaining within the eighteen best-selling books of all
time (including the Bible and Koran, for example) suggest a bizarre kind of reassurance whispering from
the thousands of white pages."
(David Buuck, contributing editor)
From the SF Bay Guardian: "Life may be pretty damned scary, but there are always good sorts
walking around, plugging in nightlights so we can see the shadows for what they truly are.
One such illuminator is San Francisco artist Jennifer Maria Harris, whose latest solo
show...includes...a multimedia installation that challenges the current culture
of fear in the United States."
(Peter Nicholson)
An interview about Fear Not on Pirate Cat Radio with Charlie and SF local legend Diamond Dave Whitaker,
as well as a second interview on Pirate Cat with Jeremy of the Kings of SF:
Fear Not Indirect Mail has been delivered in San Francisco, Brisbane, Chicago, and Nashville in the United States, Florence and Milan in Italy, and Karlsruhe in Germany.
who
Fear Not was created by Jennifer Maria Harris, a visual artist based in
San Francisco, California.
You can see more of her work
here.
