R E M N A N T S
an exchange of ones past for ones future
This sculptural works aims to create a physical documentation of a performative action, without alluding to what that action was. In this way they represent a set of meanings which will not come across directly to an audience. The exhibited balls of clay and wool represent the past, including but not limited to, moments of fear, sadness, joy, laughter, guilt.
I offer these universal emotions to you in exchange for one from you: hope. You may take a ball of wool and clay from the room, but in exchange I ask that you write down one thing that gives you hope for the future. In this way hopefully we can overcome the past together, for better or worse.
Robert Hardaker is a performance artist, based in Leicester. Hardaker’s practice aims to recollect a supposed co-existing consciousness and memory aided by the curation of a space and the highlighting of the senses. He forms his own likeness, memories and emotions around himself; the audience is a malleable entity who can choose to become part of this dialogue, or not. Hardaker graduated from De Montfort University in 2012 with a first class Ba (Hons) degree in Fine art. In the same year he was awarded the Embrace Arts Award for dedication to arts practice and worked with Leeds art gallery to produce work for Grassington Festival Art Trail in response to Richard Hamilton’s Kent State – this work is now part of Leeds Art Gallery’s permanent collection and lending library. In 2013 he performed as part of Roger Horns’ “Youth” at the Hepworth Gallery (Wakefield).
His work has featured in various national performance platforms, including Circuit (Leicester), Little Wolf Parade (Nottingham), Tempting Failure (Bristol), and SPILL (Ipswich / London). Hardaker received ACE funding to develop new work for showcase at SPILL 2015. “…challenging, provocative/evocative, both highly personal yet accessibly universal, tangibly embodied, and achingly beautiful in his humanness and simplicity, dealing aptly and uniquely with uncomfortable contemporary issues.” — Alexandra Zierle and Paul Carter
www.roberthardaker.com
@roberthardaker
photo by Lewys Holt (Edited by Robert Hardaker)
