Noel R. Harding
Born(1945-12-21)December 21, 1945
London, England
DiedMay 26, 2016(2016-05-26) (aged 70)
Toronto
Known forvideo artist
installation artist
public sculptor

Noel R. Harding (December 21, 1945 – May 26, 2016) was a Canadian contemporary artist.[1][2] He produced sculptures, installations,[3] video works,[4][5] and public artworks during an artistic career that spanned over forty years.[6][7]

Life

Noel Robert Harding was born December 21, 1945, in London England.[1][8]

Harding taught in the Department of Fine Art at the University of Guelph between 1972 and 1979, and in the Department of Experimental Art at the Ontario College of Art between 1977 and 1982. From 1984 to 1995, he taught at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunst (AKI) in Enschede, The Netherlands and at the Dutch Art Institute (ArtEZ) in Enschede, in the International Post Graduate Program.[9]

He died in Caledon, Ontario, on May 26, 2016, from sudden heart failure.[10][11]

Work

Noel Harding: The Elevated Wetlands

Video works

Harding initially became known as an artist through his video works in the early 1970s.[12] Some of his video works include[13]

  • Untitled Using Barbara,[14] 1973
  • Birth’s Child,[15] 1973
  • Clouds,[14] 1974
  • Three Works for Mind/Body (versions 1 and 2),[16][17][18] 1975
  • Simplified Confusions,[19] 1976
  • A Serene Composition Suggestive of Pastoral Repose,[20][21] 1977
  • Yellow,[22] 1979
  • Out of Control,[23] 1981
  • Houses Belong to Those Who Live in them,[24] 1982 and
  • Elephants,[25][26] 1983.

During the period that he was producing video art, Harding was a part of the Centre for Experimental Art and Communication[27] that existed in Toronto between 1975 and 1978.[28] In 1976, Harding was a founding member of the artist run video access centre Ed Video in Guelph Ontario.[29]

Sculptural installations

In the 1980s, Harding built several installations around the theme of agriculture and the environment. In 1980 he was commissioned by the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England to produce the work Scenic Events on A Path of Upheaval.[30][31] In Scenic Events, a small cart carrying live heads of lettuce traverses the gallery while goldfish swim in a wraparound tank along the gallery walls, and an overhead speaker relays the sound of bombs.[32] Harding is reported to have made the work as a response to the Soviet–Afghan War that began in late 1979.[33] In his 1981 piece Enclosure for a Conventional Habitat, he created a work that placed six live chickens on a conveyor belt with an automatic feeding mechanism. The piece brought the sight, sound and smell of food production into the art gallery environment.[3][34][35]

Public art

From the 1990s until his death, Harding produced primarily public artworks. In 1990 he completed and installed "The Potato Eaters" at the Mississauga Civic Centre.[3] This was followed by The Elevated Wetlands in 1997 and 1998. Installed in Taylor Creek park, Toronto, the piece consists of a set of elevated gardens supported on sculptures made of recycled polystyrene and acrylic.[7][36][37][38] The sculptures act as a water filtration system, using solar panels to pump water from the adjacent Don River into the sculpture's elevated wetlands, where the water is purified organically.[39][40][41] Elevated Wetlands is his most well known work.[42]

In 2013 he installed the public sculpture Dawes Crossing at the intersection of Dawes Road and Victoria Park Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. The piece integrates the outline of a traditional barn with a solar wand wind-powered system that irrigates a small garden beneath the barn.[43] The sculpture was negatively received by some local residents, who were confused as to what the purpose of the structure was.[44][45]

His 2013 public artwork Raincatcher is installed outside the Edmonds Community Centre in Burnaby, British Columbia.[46][47]

In 2015, Harding completed the public sculpture Reverb outside the General Motors Centre in Oshawa, Ontario.[6] Harding also collaborated with CIMA+, DTAH and others to complete a master plan for the Alton Millpond landscape art and pond rehabilitation project in the community where he resided, Caledon, Ontario.[48]

Just prior to his death in 2016, Harding had been selected to create a public artwork outside the Royal York (TTC) subway station in Toronto Ontario.[49]

Collections

Harding's work is included in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada[1] and the Canada Council Art Bank.[50]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Noel Harding 1945 - 2016". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  2. ↑ "Artist/Maker Name "Harding, Noel"". Canadian Heritage Information Network. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Joan Murray (1 November 1999). Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century. Dundurn. pp. 245–. ISBN 978-1-55488-120-8.
  4. ↑ "Noel Harding". V-tape. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  5. ↑ Loren Ruth Lerner (1997). Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature. University of Toronto Press. pp. 1063–. ISBN 978-0-8020-2988-1.
  6. 1 2 Ruta, Mike. "Artist Noel Harding puts finishing touches onGeneral Motors Centre sculpture". Durhamregion.com. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  7. 1 2 John Warkentin (2010). Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto. Becker Associates. pp. 232–. ISBN 978-0-919387-60-7.
  8. ↑ Marquis Who's Who (1 February 2002). Who's who in American Art: 2001-2002. Marquis Who's Who, LLC. ISBN 978-0-8379-6302-0.
  9. ↑ "Noel Harding fonds". City of Toronto. eloquent-systems.com. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  10. ↑ Rhodes, Richard. "Lives Lived: Noel Harding, 70". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  11. ↑ "Deaths: Noel Robert Harding". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  12. ↑ Ira Schneider; Beryl Korot (May 1976). Video art: an anthology. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 978-0-15-193632-8.
  13. ↑ "Retrospective 1973-1983 - Harding, Noel". Art Metropole. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  14. 1 2 Chris Meigh-Andrews (7 November 2013). A History of Video Art. A&C Black. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-0-85785-188-8.
  15. ↑ "Birth's Child". LIMA Media art. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  16. ↑ Studio International. Studio Trust. 1977.
  17. ↑ "Three works for Mind/Body (version 1)". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  18. ↑ "Three works for Mind/Body (version 2)". National Gallery of Canada. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  19. ↑ "Simplified Confusions, 1976". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  20. ↑ "Collection / Works / A Serene Composition Suggestive Of Pastoral Repose". LUX Moving Images. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  21. ↑ "A Serene Composition Suggestive of Pastoral Repose, 1977". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  22. ↑ "Catalogue Netherlands Media Art Institute". LIMA Media art. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  23. ↑ "Collection / Works / Out Of Control". Lux Moving Image. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  24. ↑ "Houses Belong to Those Who Live in Them". Lima-Media-art. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  25. ↑ "Elephants, 1983". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  26. ↑ "Case Studies > Elephants". National Review of Live Art Digitisation Project. Bristol University. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  27. ↑ "Centre for Experimental Art and Communication". CCCA Canadian Art Database. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  28. ↑ Dot Tuer (2005). Mining the Media Archive: Essays on Art, Technology, and Cultural Resistance. YYZ Books. pp. 1935–. ISBN 978-0-920397-35-0.
  29. ↑ "History". Ed Video. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  30. ↑ Umbrella. Umbrella Associates. 1980.
  31. ↑ "Scenic Events on a Path of Upheaval, (view 5 of 5)". CCCA. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  32. ↑ Vanguard. Vancouver Art Gallery. 1984.
  33. ↑ Milroy, Sarah. "The art that refreshes". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  34. ↑ Rhodes, Richard. "Past Blast: To Russia With Noel". Canadian Art. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  35. ↑ "Enclosure for Conventional Habit, (view 3 of 3)". CCCA. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  36. ↑ Alter, Lloyd. "Art and function combined". Treehugger. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  37. ↑ Robert Lawrence France (2005). Facilitating Watershed Management: Fostering Awareness and Stewardship. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 289–. ISBN 978-0-7425-3364-6.
  38. ↑ Craig Pearson; Judith Nasby (11 August 2008). The Cultivated Landscape: An Exploration of Art and Agriculture. MQUP. pp. 316–. ISBN 978-0-7735-7837-1.
  39. ↑ Landscape Architecture. Lay, Hubbard & Wheelright. 2000.
  40. ↑ Harvard Design Magazine. Harvard University Graduate School of Design. 2000.
  41. ↑ Rampike. 2000.
  42. ↑ Micaleff, Shawn (18 June 2016). "Remembering artist and urban innovator Noel Harding's legacy". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  43. ↑ Levy, Sue-Ann. "Public art failure". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  44. ↑ Hudes, Sammy. "With 200 pieces of city-owned art, some are bound to raise eyebrows". National Post. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  45. ↑ Korhani, Vida. "New art barn at Dawes Road 'confusing': residents". Toronto Observer. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  46. ↑ "Public Art: Raincatcher". City of Burnaby. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  47. ↑ Seccia, Stefania. "Functional art costs $160,000". Burnaby Now. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  48. ↑ https://281e9fcb-c29c-48bc-b758-92941e119c5f.filesusr.com/ugd/f520cf_dcac4ff0a1af4a56b261274475b16e9b.pdf
  49. ↑ Bateman, Chris. "Artistic overhaul coming to five TTC subway stations". Metronews.ca. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  50. ↑ "Blue Peter Steps Out to Remember". Art Bank. Canada Council for the Arts. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
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