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participate
Participate in Fear Not Radio by calling 1-888-END2FEAR (1-888-363-2332) and leaving a message saying "Don't be afraid."

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.

news
Fear Not Indirect Mail can now be delivered by volunteers, and our first Indirect Mail agent will be taking some of the recent messages to Thailand and Laos in November 2011.

Interested in becoming an Indirect Mail agent? Find out more and sign up here.

why
I have shown my work in traditional art venues for many years, but I have also always created artworks that exist outside of those spaces and that invite and involve people from all walks of life, even some who might not feel comfortable in, or interested in, a gallery or museum.

In the fall of 2007 I read an interview in The Sun magazine with Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue. The interview focused on questions of spirituality and creativity, and along the way it mentioned that the phrase "Do not be afraid" appears 366 times in the Bible. I imagined the person who had gone through over a thousand pages looking for that one message, and it made me think about how we are constantly making choices with regard to filtering the information around us, whether that's information from the Bible or another religious text, from friends and family, or from our own thoughts. That made me interested in creating a project that would make those choices more transparent.

As human animals, it is natural for us to choose to focus on and communicate about what to be afraid of. In our current culture, where we are surrounded by an overwhelming amount of information from around the globe, this results in an equally overwhelming amount of fear-oriented messages, both in our mass media and in the information we share with each other.

The Fear Not project seeks to address this culture of fear, which cuts across communities and contributes to the divisions in our society, by inviting people to consciously deliver anti-fear messages to each other and create a culture of Fear Not. The messages tell people not to be afraid, but I don't think the power behind the message is in the words. It's in the reminder that we can choose to see those words in the world around us. It's in the reminder that we can then choose to pass those words on. It's in the fact that someone else chose to share them with us, without regard for our race, religion, or political beliefs.

In all of these ways, I hope to emphasize how the power to shape our emotional environment, and the kind of world in which we choose to live, lies with us, not with the media or anyone else.

what
Fear Not currently consists of the Fear Not Library, Fear Not Radio, and Fear Not Indirect Mail. Additions to the project in many other media are planned, including Fear Not Video, 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 Root Division, the Red Poppy Art House, a.Muse Gallery, and the Trickster Arts Salon in San Francisco, at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center, 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 was also featured in The Bloomin' Blog by Mimi Meredith.

I had a great time talking about Fear Not for The Art of No Fear: Jennifer Maria Harris on the Artlarking blog.

Fear Not was featured on the Little Paper Planes blog.

Fear Not was featured on the arts blog for the Phoenix New Times.

Fear Not was featured on the blog for Glamcult in Holland.

Fear Not Indirect Mail has been delivered in San Francisco, Oakland, Brisbane, Chicago, Nashville, Austin, Kapa'a, and Wailua in the United States, Florence and Milan in Italy, Karlsruhe in Germany, and Market Harborough and London in England.

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.