Exploring D Harding and Kate Harding's multi-layered practices and the artists' relationship to Carnarvon Gorge.
Descendants of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples, D Harding and Kate Harding's multi-layered practices are motivated by the cultural inheritances of their family, who originate in the Fitzroy Basin and the Maranoa River headwaters territories in central Queensland.
Through a lens of visitation specifically explores the artists' relationship to Carnarvon Gorge and pays particular homage to matrilineal family figures – engaging and bringing forth their stories.
D's works are known for their poetic and political approach to materiality and process, while Kate, a textile artist, has created several new quilts to tell her stories of family, culture and Country.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of writings by senior women scholars that reflect on the history of Carnarvon Gorge and speculate on its resonances within Australian modernism. This book extends Harding’s dual commitment – working in the academy as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, and as an internationally exhibiting artist—to grow a discourse around Indigenous modernisms, cultural practice and contemporary art.
D Harding grew up in the Queensland coal mining community of Moranbah – their father a miner and cattle farmer and their mother a skilled artisan. They relocated to Brisbane in 2004 and later attended the Queensland College of Art, where in 2019, they completed their Doctor of Visual Arts with a thesis entitled 'The language of space'.
Harding's painterly and sculptural practice is driven by their deep connection with the experiences and histories of their family – in particular, their matrilineal heritage – and the important stories of what is now known as Carnarvon Gorge, a 32-kilometre-long canyon of sandstone cliffs and remnant rainforest that sits among the headwaters of various river systems in Queensland's Central Highlands.
In preparation for this exhibition, D Harding observed: 'I am not the only artist in my family'. D's mother Kate Harding's presence in this exhibition attests to this statement. In conversation, their works evidence a strong continuing connection to culture and Country.
Kate's making is propelled by a curiosity around materials and methods. Self-taught and taking pleasure in experimentation, she has developed a range of technical skills – wood carving, leather work, crochet, needlepoint, appliqué and quilt-making. Kate's studio is her home, and like many artists, she works in and around other commitments. Using tables and spaces as they become available, this home base facilitates her working across multiple projects at the same time. She explains, "I might start something but then have to stop and put it aside and start something else until it starts talking to me again. I've always got a number of projects on the go."
Kate's early quilt-making was informed by American Amish and Scandinavian quilting traditions. This period is acknowledged in the exhibition through the inclusion of two quilts made on the occasion of D's birth and tenth birthday. For their public display, these quilts have been folded: a gesture often used by D in order to hold and protect personal or certain cultural information.
In 2008, with the passing of her father, Kate created a significant quilt that depicted his story and relationships to family and Country. While made with store-bought fabrics and Western quilting methods, the work used licenced Indigenous-designed fabrics and was the first to directly address her family's cultural story in its conception and design. This shift has continued in Kate's quilt-making practice.
D Harding with Kate Harding: Through a lens of visitation is co-produced by the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, and Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne and supported by Arts QLD.
Exhibition closed 26 February 2023
Chau Chak Wing Museum
Free
Phone: +61 2 93512812
Email: ccwm.info@sydney.edu.au
Chau Chak Wing Museum
University Place
Camperdown NSW 2050
