Night Body
Winner of QRAA 2023 (Digital Art)
Date: 2023
Location: Namba/Nambour, 2023
Detail/Materials: Single-channel video: 3:06 minutes (looped), colour, sound, 16:9
Score by Elijah Huckel
Shoot Assistance: Ben Hines
Mentoring by Megan Williams
The Project was supported by The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) which is a partnership between the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and Sunshine Coast Council through ArtsCoast to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
A video performance work, Night Body combines spoken word, costume design, sound, and movement. The title makes reference to the fruiting body of the luminous Mycena Chlorophos, a species of agaric fungus, only visible at night.
Night Body continues Harding’s exploration of psychedelics as a subject matter and was developed after the artist sighted a Mycena Chlorophos in her backyard at night. Filmed in the location of the sighting, Night Body presents the artist in a hand-constructed, mushroom-shaped costume, made from 660 hand-rolled ceramic beads and a cap painted in layers of glow-in-the-dark paint.
Through the mirroring and overlay of imagery, movement, and sound, Harding merges her identity with that of the fungus. The work is a celebration of nature intended to illicit conversations about the interconnectedness of the micro and macro Worlds.
MAKING OF DOCUMENTATION HERE
