2024 | ANDREW HARDING
INTRAVENOUS DOVE (PROJECT SPACE)
TORONTO
Feb 8 - Apr 20,2024

**Andrew Harding**, *Intravenous Dove Armour*, 2023 Ed. 1/2,
3D print, chrome paint,
9 x 12 in.

Blouin Division is pleased to present Intravenous Dove, a solo exhibition of new work by Toronto artist Andrew Harding.

Andrew Harding (b. 1995) is a Métis project-based artist, whose works explore hybridity through sculpture using found imagery and fabricated forms. Intravenous Dove is the spiritual successor to Harding’s previous project, Not All Dogs Go to Heaven (2022). Emerging from an exploration of contemporary angst and accepting the unknown, these new works meditate on the signals and symbols of determination.

While Not All Dogs Go to Heaven proceeds from the superstition of the stray dog of fortune, weaving a fictional narrative of precarity and survival in the face of the end of times, this exhibition uses the emblem of the dove as a stand-in for hope and resilience. Contemplating the indeterminacy of the future, Harding uses imagery of fragmented skies, broken windshields, and avian forms both abstract and literal. Cracks and fractures might be deep or superficial, but always with the implication of potential breakthroughs and healing.

Harding’s work is as much about the behind-the-scenes process as it is the final product. Making pieces that use commercial printing methods, the completed objects contain the collaboration of the artist (planning, drawing, coordinating, refining) and the fabricator (carrying out technically). Administration, sourcing materials, soliciting quotes from printers and fabricators, and arranging shipping are frequently forgotten parts of the artistic process.

Using familiar iconography of daily life, often passed over without much thought, the works in this exhibition draw attention to our proximity to, and distance from, everyday occurrences and motifs that we take for granted. Looking to the physical and theoretical functions of support structures, Harding foregrounds the various mechanics of how his pieces are presented in, and interact with space. There is a reverent quality to the works, appearing salient and votive, as well as referential and mysterious. Essentially, they evoke ways in which we consider sacred value in times of unrest.

Through sculptural intervention, digital and 3D printing, and installation, the essence of the dove is instilled, suspended, and concentrated in direct and abstract representations throughout this body of work. The dove and the sky speak a similar language of respite, which shines through the cracks. Amidst the precious and the uncertain, Intravenous Dove is an infusion of what it means to carry on.

Harding would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council.

Andrew Harding - Intravenous Dove (project space)