D Harding with Kate Harding: Through a lens of visitation
Contemporary Art Project #3
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. As D states:
these inheritances are expressed in the continuation of the artforms and knowledges that live in the cultural landscapes of this region.
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 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.
Header image: Installation view of D Harding with Kate Harding: Through a lens of visitation