Joe Harris

Joe Harris credited the city of Harlem as the driving force of his career because it fostered and encouraged his creative endeavors. Harris experimented with photography and xerography because he believed xerography opened new doors for his creativity. Xerography was not just a copying device or office supply, but rather, Harris believed it was a creative tool for photographers in the same way a paint brush was for painters.

In this xerogram, Harris layered copies made from a color Xerox machine of an image of Clifford Glover, a 10-year-old boy from Brooklyn who was killed by a policeman in 1973. 

“I began to collect clippings and images after hearing about the incident, hoping to make sense out of what happened. This tragedy received much media coverage, but as always, it died down. It is my hope that the “Altar for Clifford Glover” will keep alive the memory of this child and all others who die senselessly.”

Title: Altar for Clifford Glover
Artist: Joe Harris (1940 – 2003)
Date: 1976
Medium: xerogram on paper 
Dimensions: Framed: 33 7/8 x 21 5/8 inches
Accession Number: H77.32
 

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