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.

This publication assembles three phases of Termite Economies, a major series of artworks produced between 2018–2020 by the Australian artist Nicholas Mangan.

In Termite Economies (Phase 1) Mangan researched an anecdote that termite abilities might one day lead humans to gold deposits. Phase 2 explored termite eusociality, pheromonal communication, building behaviour, biomimicry, super-organism and swarm intelligence. Phase 3 deployed termite collectivism as a speculative model for rerouting human neural pathways. Within each phase, Mangan developed specific methods to explore these phenomena formally, spatially, and through moving images.

The book presents each phase in the order of the exhibition series. It includes process and research photographs, diagrams, installation and detailed imagery. It includes an essay by Artist Mariana Silva, a fictional text by writer ST.Lore, a conversation between Mangan and cultural theorist Ana Teixeira Pinto, and a republished essay by Dr. Guy Theraulaz. Designed by 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.

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Collecting Europe, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. EU, 2017 is an abstracted version of the final part of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. This iconic composition has been used at historical moments, and is now the official anthem of the European Union.

More information on the project can be found here.

Designed by Žiga Testen.

Produced the occasion of the screening of Tom Zubrycki’s unfinished documentary film on the history of the Australian labour movement, from the 1850’s up until the bicentenary of 1988. Originally sponsored by the Australian Council for Trade Unions, produced by Film Australia, and funded by the Australian Bicentennial Authority, the film was effectively censored when the ACTU rejected the film’s representation of union history.

With an excerpt from John Hughes’ manuscript for his essay Zubrycki’s Point: Amongst Equals, utilitarian film in the Australian labour movement, on the controversy surrounding the production of Amongst Equals.

Designed by Ziga Testen.

More information on the screenings can be found here.

Produced on the occasion of Lisa Adkins’ talk discussing how we might rethink the maintenance and reproduction of the household today. She preposes that we think of this as a relationship between the household and its necessary, contracted payments to finance capital (for utilities and services, as loan repayments, rent, etc.)

The talk was co-presented with Benison Kilby, as a part of her exhibition “Bodies of Work”. The exhibition looked at how a group of artists respond to the intersections of reproductive, care, and feminised labour that maintain, and increasingly define, our current living conditions.

Designed by Ziga Testen.

More information on the talk can be found here and a recording of the talk can be found here.