Chapel Arts Studios exhibition: artists statement:
Kate finds inspiration from everyday 'stuff.' Seemingly banal and often over looked objects become transformed through her application of traditional techniques in highly original ways. Found objects become deified, having their portraits painted in oils and sliced bread into Romanesque mosaics. After her interdisciplinary grounding at Winchester School of Art she is comfortable working in an eclectic way with drawing, painting, video, sculpture and performance featuring with equal weight in her portfolio.

People and communities form a focus for most of her recent works. Essentially there is an interrogation of personal relationships starting with an exploration of a relationship between two people, a family and on a larger scale, a religious community and a nation. Her current research is bringing her to make connections between mythology, using story-telling, poetry and symbolism as departure points. Art as social commentary with an understanding that its production should be undertaken with a clear focus on establishing dialogue with a community outside of ‘Art’ is of paramount importance. The work is developed with the audience in mind and often directly involving participants.

For more information on the artist, please visit: www.kateharding.com
or write to: contact@kateharding.com

Articles
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7054439.ece
www.dailyecho.co.uk/.../6271049.Artwork_made_from_bread_on_show_in_Cathedral/
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7054439.ece
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=414284

Education
2006-2010 (Hons) Fine Art, Sculpture, Winchester School of Art, .
1999-2000 London College Printing. (Distinction)

Selected works:
Host’ and ‘Chalice’ were two recent site responsive pieces shown in the Reimagining Treasures of Hyde Abbey as part of the Hyde 900 Arts Festival in Winchester. They both use archetypal religious imagery and techniques, utilizing gilding and optical illusionary devices.
‘Host’ - a bread mosaic exhibited in Winchester Cathedral as part of the Hyde 900 Exhibition. The name 'Host' is derived from the bread that symbolizes the body of Christ in the communion service. This work highlights the relationship of the individual to a community. The intensive production of 'Host' evokes the very process of agricultural production that was central to the Hyde Abbey's religious communities.
‘Chalice’ - A camera obscura (3.6m x 2.4m x 2.10m) which provided the viewer the opportunity to meditate upon the ethereal projected image of the chalice. The role of the artist making manifest the need for transcendence, through religious experience is the focus of this piece, interrogating materiality in relation to spirituality or objectivity alongside subjectivity.
‘ICON’ Installations – A series of installations exploring and blurring the distinction between the subjective and objective: with a focus on contemporary spirituality.
ICON 3 ‘Dead End’ – A recreation of black and white chequered floor (as commonly found in perspective studies in renaissance painting) constructed from carefully sieved symmetrical squares of flour.

‘Mothers Pride’, A Slice of Family Life for the Lads - biographical bread installation inspired by a mother and her family’s military life.

Stellar Monday – Interactive Live Art

Set up and curated live art events on a weekly basis. Liaised with artists and the venue management, made arrangements for the installation of appropriate equipment and equable conditions in which the artists to show their work. Created a brand (Stellar Mondays) for the event, designing marketing material and distributing the advertising, all the while creating awareness of the events through networking and word of mouth.

This was the first of such initiatives to emerge from the school. We have built a sound following and the group of young artists (at its height 50 patrons were involved in one of the smallest venues in Winchester). Became well established and provided artists with a springboard to showing work outside the University.

We continue to work with the network of artists that has been created from these events over the two years they were operating.

Exibitions

February 2010
Hyde 900
Re-imagining Treasures of Hyde Abbey ‘Host’ and ‘Chalice’
Winchester Cathedral

June 2010
Winchester School of Art Degree Show
‘Projector Seat’ and ‘Separation - after Guernica’
WSA

June 2010
'All the rest': group show
‘Non Functional Harmony’
Chapel Arts Chapel Arts Studio and Iron Age Museum Andover