Introducing Dada Luz and Biscuit Printing

Harvey Taylor, self portrait

“An ancient civilization created by Harvey Taylor” is how Shrewsbury artist Harvey Taylor describes the fantastical world of Dada Luz, which he will unveil at an exhibition at the town's Bear Steps Gallery this October. But before that, Harvey will be bringing his playfully surreal brand of creativity to Belle Vue Arts Festival in a series of children's gel printing workshops. “The first thing we'll be doing is printing biscuits” he said. “I'll bring some biscuits, but if they've got a favourite biscuit, preferably one that's got writing and patterns on it, they can bring it and we'll impress it on wet paint on the gel plate and then build up backgrounds. It can be unpredictable, but that's all part of the fun. Usually the effects are really funky, kind of Andy Warhol. Also I'll have lots of stencils cut, we can print twigs, branches, flowers, bits of string...It's flexible and colourful and hopefully you'll get some very satisfying results, and quite quickly.”

After studying Creative Arts at Nottingham's Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University), Harvey pursued a career path that included management training, counselling and foster-caring before moving to Shrewsbury in 2021. Since 2023, when he began concentrating on his artistic practice full-time, he has had studio space in the now-demolished Raven Studios and Riverside Mall, and until January this year, at English Bridge Studios. His first solo exhibition, 'Channel Crossing', took place at Gateway Gallery earlier this year. Exploring the roots of artistic inspiration, it also acted as preparation for the forthcoming Bear Steps event.

“I thought I needed to have a go at doing a small-scale exhibition first” explained Harvey “and I'm so glad I did. It's changed the way I'm approaching the one at Bear Steps. I was determined to be present at the exhibition as much as possible, so that when anyone came in I could talk to them and try to work out what they were interested in. I interacted with probably 150 people altogether. Just really interesting chats, some of them quite in-depth, and making connections, which I love.”

This interest in connections is apparent not only in his appreciation of Shrewsbury's artistic community, which he describes as “phenomenal” and “so supportive”, but also in the premise of Dada Luz. “Dada Luz is short for Comunidad de Luz, which is Spanish for 'Community of Light'” explained Harvey. “I'm very much interested in community in general, and artistic communities in particular, so I wanted to imagine this ancient civilization, where the community ethos was a key feature.”

Readers who want to learn how the Dada Luz community is organised should click here – but what should they expect from the exhibition? In true Harvey style, it will be an exhilarating multi-media trip through Dada Luz culture, and also collaborative, with interested artists invited to channel their inner god or goddess into an artist-as-deity self-portrait for inclusion. The highlight will be the Dada Luz Performance, a celebratory extravaganza featuring, amongst other things, performance poetry by Harvey and a Greek chorus “because it's a brilliant device. I don't understand how modern theatre gets away with not having Greek choruses. They're a great way of connecting the audience to what's going on." But at its heart, it will be an exhibition about the infinite possibilities of the liberated creative mind. “What I want audiences to ask” said Harvey "is not 'what does it mean?' or 'what's the story?'; I want them to make up their own story. Because all my art is done intuitively, I don't start with 'this is an event that happened and I'm going to illustrate it'. It's completely the other way around. I start off with scribble, or a mark, and then I respond to it and it builds from there. Narrative is the very last thing that comes."

To find out more about Harvey's Gel Plate workshops, and to book your free place, click here.