Dale Harding

Dale Harding, Wall Composition in Bimbird and Reckitt’s Blue, 2018. Installation view at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2018. Photo: Thierry Bal

Dale Harding, Wall Composition in Bimbird and Reckitt’s Blue, 2018. Installation view at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2018. Photo: Thierry Bal

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Dale Harding (b. 1982, Moranbah, Australia) is a descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples of Central Queensland and lives in Brisbane, Australia. 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 has created a new wall-based work for Tate Liverpool that is inspired by rock art sites in Queensland and uses a stencil technique practised by the artist’s ancestors. The predominant material is 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