Dale Harding is a descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples of Central Queensland and lives in Brisbane, Australia.
2018 Biennial Year Find out more
Working in diverse techniques and traditions, including painting, installation, sculpture, domestic handicrafts, stencilling, woodcarving and silicone casting, Harding is renowned for works that explore the untold histories of his communities. He has a particular interest in ideas of cultural continuum and investigates the social and political realities experienced by his family under government control in Queensland, with a focus on matrilineal elders.
Dale Harding created a new wall-based work for Tate Liverpool that was inspired by rock art sites in Queensland and used a stencil technique practised by the artist’s ancestors. The predominant material was Reckitt’s Blue, an ultramarine pigment and optical whitener with strong symbolic power. Produced in the UK and used in Liverpool’s public washhouses, it travelled along the colonial frontier to Africa and Australia, where Harding’s mother used it in her job at a laundry. This new work tells stories of female labour in the UK and Australia, connecting histories from different parts of the globe.
Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2018); Documenta 14, Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany (2017); 11th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2016); the National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (2016); and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (2016).
Dale Harding at Liverpool Biennial 2018
Wall Composition in Bimbird and Reckitt’s Blue, 2018
Reckitt’s Blue, ochre, gum arabicum, custom-made plinths
Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Exhibited at Tate Liverpool
Dale Harding: Wall Composition in Bimbird and Reckitt’s Blue
Using a stencil technique practised by his ancestors, Dale Harding has created a large-scale wall painting at Tate Liverpool which is inspired by rock art sites in Queensland, Australia. Hear the artist discuss the use of the pigment Reckitt’s Blue – a colour with strong colonial connections – through which Harding tells stories of female labour and connects histories from different parts of the globe.
Liverpool Biennial 2018: Beautiful world, where are you? takes place across the city’s public spaces, galleries and civic buildings from 14 July until 28 October.
Video: Carl Davies, FACT Video Production Services
LB2018 Snapshot: Dale Harding
Artist Dale Harding is creating a new wall-based work for Liverpool Biennial using Reckitt’s Blue, a colour pigment used in a laundry detergent that was produced in Liverpool and travelled across the colonial frontier to his home country of Australia. He will use the colour as part of a stencil technique practiced by his ancestors. Harding is one of several artists who will go on show at Tate Liverpool in Summer 2018.
Liverpool Biennial 2018: Beautiful world, where are you? takes place from 14 July – 28 October across the city’s public spaces, galleries, museums and civic buildings.