Trent Harris: Echo Cave

Trent Harris: Echo Cave is the first retrospective into the creative genius of the Utah cult filmmaker. This exhibition presents drawings, photographs, artists books, and short films that illuminate Harris’s process and inimitable style. Internationally renowned for films such as The Beaver Trilogy and Rubin & Ed, Harris demonstrates a lasting influence on underground cinema with his independent filmmaking and visual art practice.

The title of his book, Mondo Utah, alludes to a genre of Italian filmmaking in which pseudo-documentaries of sensationalized and taboo subjects are presented in a cinema-verité style. The word “mondo” also serves as a philosophy that frames Harris’s practice. His films often blur the line between documentary and narrative-fiction as a way to engage with notions of the absurd, the bizarre, and the uncanny.

The world of Harris’s films is populated by recluses and misfits that reflect his own status as an outsider. Just as Harris works in the margins of independent filmmaking, his subjects often exist in the margins of society. Harris’s filmic treatment of these individuals is marked by a humanism and a wry sense of humor that has elevated his films to cult-status.