A descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal peoples, much of Dale Harding’s multilayered practice is motivated by the cultural inheritances of his families, who originate in the Fitzroy Basin and the sandstone belt of central Queensland. Harding’s works pay homage to the stories and presence of matrilineal figures in his family.

Produced to accompany an exhibition of the same title at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) and the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, Through a lens of visitation specifically explores the artist’s relationship to his mother’s Country of Carnarvon Gorge and documents a major new commission and first-time collaboration with his mother Kate Harding. A textile artist, who since 2008 has employed quilt-making to tell her stories of family, culture and Country, Kate Harding’s quilts are presented alongside painterly responses undertaken by Dale Harding across various mediums.

Edited by Hannah Mathews and Dale Harding. Designed by Stuart Geddes and Žiga Testen.

Located in what is now Central Queensland, Australia, Carnarvon Gorge is one of Australia’s most important historical and natural landmarks. For many centuries, the gorge has been a canvas on which Indigenous artists and communities have imprinted their histories, through stenciled images of weaponry and shields, domestic tools, ceremonial objects, and indexes of the human body. Brisbane-based artist Dale Harding—a descendant of the Bidjara, Ghungalu, and Garingbal peoples of Central Queensland, born in 1982—approaches the site as a map. By making copies of the represented objects, he traces their formal and material lineage, which is often embedded in the colonial narrative by their problematic inclusion in ethnographic collections and museums.

Designed by Žiga Testen.