Air

Each imprint of the digging stick is also an index of breath: the dispersal of air from the lungs to the lips is made visible through particles of pigment that are then fixed in time as the ochre dries. Harding regularly involves their family in the art-making process and, in doing so, has also come to see breath as a familial imprint. In fact, the artist is now able to identify certain family members through their ochre-filled exhalations, and has noticed similarities between the markings of father and son or brother and sister. 3 Another conceptual ‘stencil’ is established through this collaborative process, with which the artist’s relatives can repeat the method on their own, following or adapting the boundaries of the initial work. Many of Harding’s stencil paintings, then, become instructional pieces sustained by the breath of others. This shared practice holds more significance for the artist than its final outcome. As they wrote in early 2021: I propose that spectators are an auxiliary motivation for living cultural lives, and that contemporary art is an extension or continuation of the home lives and social lives of communities. This is a challenge I propose for myself and those around me. 4 As I remember it (H2) resists easy explication: it records, but doesn’t seek to explain the process behind its making. As such, Harding grapples with questions of vision and visitation: How to strategically employ the discipline of contemporary art to sustain cultural practice? How to do so without performing these acts for the gaze of the art world, while still producing something that can be shown to and enjoyed by others? What is seen; what is private? Who has the privilege of being seen and who has the equal privilege to remain private? These questions inform Harding’s careful continuation of Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal artistic lineage, circling behind each exhalation of colour. SR 3 d Harding, conversation with the author, Brisbane, 15 December 2021. 4 d Harding, quoted in Hannah Mathews, ‘An introductory interview with Dale Harding, in Dale Harding: Through a Lens of Visitation [exhibition catalogue], p.7. d Harding with Hayley Matthew / Know them in correct judgement – Gami (detail) 2020 ‘Harding regularly involves their family in the art-making process and, in doing so, has also come to see breath as a familial imprint.’ 97 96 Shared Shared