Dale Harding (b. 1982, Moranbah/Brisbane) has recently been motivated by techniques of stencil imprints, a practice from the artistic traditions of his aboriginal ancestors. Using Earth-bound elements, such as ochers and pigments, he applies these to walls in cut-out figures by blowing from his mouth into the pigment dust and creating an imprint on the wall. This is arguably the oldest painting technique in the world. The figures depict the negative forms of elements such as leaves, hands, or guns and are arranged in groups. Through the application of these techniques, he is interested in documenting the lived experiences of his female elders, and the stories related to his current cultural practice, as well as those of contemporary First Nations’ struggles as they exist in oral histories.
Harding often builds narrative objects that carry in them the history and digital mark of his people, using particular techniques and craft skills as a mode of political resilience. A Queensland native, he explores the artistic traditions of his aboriginal ancestors of Bidjara, Ghungalu, and Garingbal background, communities who face cultural oppression and subjugation while living under total government control. See, for example, the series White Collared (2013), which comprises a group of invented collars, amended with thread and rawhide. These gently woven matrixes of string and brass cut out the geometric absence of the hierarchical necks that once possessed them. They carry ageless years of struggles and domination in their adorned void, the weave of their material precarity.
Harding’s daily approach to his work involves taking an intimate look at material narratives and object histories. The artist’s concern with found objects and natural materials, such as wood or fabric, is strongly connected to the history of soil and land property, which he addresses through reclaiming the gestural and the ephemeral in his sculptural interventions. MM
self-presentation:
My interests center on my Aboriginal culture and art. My time spent learning with Ghungalu and Bidjara Elders has furthered these two interests, as well as time spent in the country with family—a large family gathering at Carnarvon Gorge National Park on Garingbal/Bidjara country has been of profound personal and artistic significance to me. My university education pivoted when I began family history research as a component of my visual arts studies at the Queensland College of Art in 2009. The thesis Confinement and Control: A History of Woorabinda Aboriginal Community 1927–1990 (1990) by Therese Forde continues to be a key text in my studio and research work. Time spent assisting artist Tony Albert and his colleagues in the ProppaNOW artist collective in 2009 established friendships and mentorships that continue to strengthen and build to this day. My studio time must involve music, preferably loud music.
