ANNA HARDING
Ghosts of IKEA
Responding to the closure of IKEA Tottenham with paintings, video and sound
Paintings on fabric which I bought in the year the store opened. From the Pernilla range designed by Linda Svensson Edevint, it has a grid design from which I pick out spaces in which IKEA visitors perform.
The paintings allude to a current state of haunting, of a place and experience vividly remembered from IKEA pilgrimages.
My videos Short cuts (if you know where to find them) and Things You Never Knew You Needed are on Vimeo.
ELKS in the rear window
Exhibition prompted by the closing of IKEA Edmonton
Meridian Water Station
April - May 2023, curated by AiR
Ghosts of IKEA Series
acrylic on IKEA fabric, 2023, resulting from an AiR residency at IKEA Edmonton in the final weeks before it closed
GROWING UP MODERN
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This ongoing series of paintings are informed by the SPAN development where I grew up. SPAN built pioneering and idealistic housing schemes set in mature communal gardens so that children could roam freely, attracting families interested in alternatives to the confines of victorian family values. Today these same developments seem rather staid and some have become a little overgrown. These stem from my interest in lived experiences of modernist aspiration, left-wing melancholia and how places hold memories
Puffa
oil on unstretched linen, 110 x 80cm, 2023
Forgotten Play Area
80 x 110 cm
oil on unstretched linen, 2023
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Flats with billowing trees
75 x 60 cm
oil on linen, 2023
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Smouldering Flats
60 x 75 cm
oil on linen, 2023
Shady Pathway
145 x 120 cm
oil on linen, 2023
Lording it up
155 x 120 cm
oil on linen, 2023
Silver Birch
110 x 85 cm
oil on unstretched linen
Regroup
105 x 77 cm
acrylic and oil on unstretched linen, 2022
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Reflection
77 x 105 cm
acrylic on unstretched linen, 2022
The Flats, 1 - 3
each 72 x 95 cm
oil on unstretched linen, 2022
FLOTSAM + JETSAM
(Exhibition installation 2022, Mile End Art Pavilion)
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Thamesmead is now on the delta flood plain, blocks of flats are partially submerged due to rising water levels
Plastic water bottles and takeaway coffee cups wash by
Man is replaced by machine and can now relax in perpetual anxiety and exhaustion
A ball of string, a pair of DIY gloves, once signifiers of work are now vestiges of an era of lifestyle accessories
Painters have given up decorating jobs to become artists
Protective Hands
After active use - dishevelled - stained - worn - floppy - limp
Abandoned without a partner
Ultra-Thin
Extra Dotted
Ribbed
Comfortable fit
Textured
Hi_Vis Series
Re: Development
Studio in a tower, sandwiched between a Travelodge tower and flats decanted originally in 2004 and after years of dispute, to be brought back into life as a residential block. 2 flats of the decanted 23-storey block appear occupied.
Light and reflections bounce off the towers, changing constantly