Born 1987
From Berry Springs, NT (Kungarakan country). Living and working in Canberra, ACT (Ngunnawal and Ngambri country).
Harriet Body's art practice is centred around care, slowness, and community. In her studio she works with media that broadly cross textiles, ceramics, and installation. Her creative process is slow and meditative. Through the repetition of mark-making or form-shaping, her work is all about watching something grow, and then end.
Harriet's socially engaged art practice involves creating community and exploring collaborative art making in a range of different contexts. She is currently examining motherhood as a conceptual underpinning to her socially engaged artwork. Harriet also works in community programming and education at the National Gallery of Australia
Harriet’s practice is a quiet and determined protest that is in direct opposition to capitalist and patriarchal structures of speed, greed and individualism.
Harriet holds an MFA (research), for which she received an Australian Postgraduate Award, and a BFA (first class) from the UNSW School of Art and Design. She received major project funding from CreateNSW in 2015, 2018, and 2021. She was a finalist in the NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship in 2019 and was awarded the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Prize in 2017.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
UNSW Art and Design (Formally, COFA)
2012 – 2014: Master of Fine Arts – research
2007 – 2010: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Time Based Art, First Class Honours
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Yours, Goulburn Regional Gallery, Goulburn
2018
In order of time, Alaska Projects, Sydney
2017
Onward, Verge Gallery, Sydney University, Sydney
2015
Sealed Earth, Wellington St Projects, Sydney
2013
Earth Mark, MOP Projects, Sydney
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
We’re all somebody’s child, curated by Lillian Silk, Casula Powehouse, Liverpool
2022
Keeping Score: Tracing Time, curated by Kelly McDonald and Sidney MacMahon, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
2020
Infinities, curated by Lauren Reid, Goulburn Regional Gallery, Goulburn
Inbound, curated by Todd Fuller, Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Bondi
2019
NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship, Artspace, Woolloomooloo
2018
Traces of Places, curated by Elizabeth Reidy, Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Bondi
2017
Untitled, curated by Alexia Glass Kantor, Talia Linz and Sophia kouyoumdjian, Artspace, Woolloomoo, Sydney
Good Neighbours, curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Miriam Kelly, Artbank, Waterloo, Sydney
2016
Wonder: Contemporary Art for Children, Curated by Carrie Kibbler, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea
2014
Glazed and Confused: Ceramics in Contemporary Practice, Curated by Lynda Draper, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea
Orbit (Melbourne), curated by George Adams, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne
PROJECTS
Peer/Peer Collaborations. A project by Art et al. : 2023
Art et al. is an international platform that mainly connects artists from supported studios with international peers, arts professionals, and audiences. Art et al.’s global collaborations and partnerships result in commissioned critical writing, exhibitions, and original multi-media content.
In 2023 Art et al. partnered me with Swiss artist, Clemen’s Wild. We met monthly on Zoom and were commissioned to created a new artwork together.
Find out more about the Peer/Peer commissions program and Art et al. here.
ARTBEAT: 2018-2021
ARTBEAT is a weekly accessible free-form dance workshop held by Harriet Body and Deb Mansfield. ARTBEAT is all about providing a safe and supportive space for people of all abilities to just dance. There are no planned steps or moves, no choreography, no memorisation, no goals, no expected form, sequence or outcome. With continued weekly practice you will notice an increased capacity for creative thinking as well as improved self esteem, coordination and fitness. Most importantly, you will discover freedom.
Yours: 2021 - 2022
Yours was a socially engaged project where over the course of a year Harriet Body met with a group of seniors and pre-schoolers local to Goulburn. Together they played, shared stories, experimented with materials and created art that examined how we exist together as people who are at different stages of life.
The resulting artwork, exhibited at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery in February 2022, looked to the metaphor of a tree to explore a collective human story of time.
Creative Legacy Project: 2020
The Creative Legacy Project is a multi-form arts program engaging creatives to make legacy pieces with patients, families and friends in an acute health care settings with people living and dying with chronic illness.
Thom and Angelmouse: 2014 - 2019
Thom and Angelmouse was the collaborative art practice of Thom Roberts and Harriet Body. Thom is autistic, and Thom and Angelmouse created work that strove to consolidate their individual views and understandings of the world, both similar and different. Thom and Angelmouse have exhibited their work at the Underbelly Arts Festival (2015), Hazelhurst Regional Gallery (2016), The Big Anxiety Festival (2017) and at Firstdraft (2018).
Paired: 2018
Paired was an exhibition curated by artist and arts worker, Harriet Body that showcased eight collaborative projects between artists living with and without intellectual/developmental disability or cognitive difference from across Australia plus one project from the UK. Harriet’s research examines the intricacies of these collaborations including how communication, friendship, and mutual education/mentorship develop between such artist pairs. Paired was originally exhibited at Firstdraft in 2018.
SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES
2019
The Big Anxiety Festival, ART*PEOPLE*CARE a long table discussion with with Project Artworks, Museum of Contemporary Art lecture theatre
Parramatta Artist Studios, Movers and Makers, Art/Life Balance panel discussion, Parramatta
2017
Arts Activated: Pathways to Practice, conference for Disability Arts sector, Carriageworks
RESIDENCIES
2020
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery residency, Collector, NSW.
2019-2020
Studio Tenancy at Wollongong Town Hall Creative Spaces
2018
Studio Tenancy at Waverley Artist Studios, Waverly, NSW
2017
Studio Tenancy at Parramatta Artist Studios, Parramatta, NSW
Summer Studio Residency, Penrith Regional Gallery and Lewers Bequest, Penrith, NSW
2015
Artist in residence, Fristdraft Gallery, Woolloomooloo
Awagami Factory Paper-Making Masterclass, Tokushima, Japan
2013
La Fragua Artist Residency, Belalcazar, Spain
Artist in residence at TAFE Sydney Institute’s Ceramic Design Studio, Gymea
PRIZES, AWARDS, GRANTS
2019
Finalist – The NSW Emerging Visual Arts Fellowship, Artspace, Wooloomooloo
2018
Finalist – The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane
Recipient - CreateNSW 2017/18 Arts and Cultural Development Fund
2017
Winner - Hazelhurst Art on Paper Emerging Artist Award, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea
2016
Finalist - Churchie Emerging Art Award, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane
2015
Finalist - Hazelhurst Art on Paper award, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea
Recipient - Australia Council Arts Funding Division – ArtStart Grant
2014
Recipient - ArtsNSW Cultural Development Program, Artist Support grant
2012-2014
Recipient - Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) for a research-based MFA at UNSW Art and Design