Maggie Harty

As an artist my intersecting identities play a huge role in the work I create. So often people who are categorized as ‘other’ are made to feel that they don’t deserve to be represented, whether that be in art, television, advertisement, etc. My work explores the overlooked beauty of the fat, queer experience and what it means to exist in a body that society tells you is not worthy. In being so systematically excluded, you begin to crave that representation. My work is providing that, it functions as a mirror for others that have shared experiences to see themselves in the forms I depict. Each piece of art I create becomes an act of radical self-love. The abstracted lines of my prints morph into classical landscapes, the body becomes something sublime, worthy of being depicted in art. Fat bodies are beautiful, they are sexy and not in spite of being fat. MY work challenges this idea that a person can only be ‘pretty hot for a fat person,’ and not just attractive in their own right, because of their body. My art encourages the viewer to look from multiple perspectives to gain a larger understanding of the work. In my printmaking this often manifests in small, delicate details that can only be seen up close, paired with a larger motif only seen from a distance. I work primarily with ceramic and printmaking processes. My ceramic work is often wheel thrown, functional ware. The process of centering, pulling walls, trimming, and glazing is a meditation. I love the process of making, of covering my hands in clay and putting my entire body into making a piece of art that someone else can then use in their everyday life. This connection is what draws me to ceramics, I love knowing that people are using the objects I make, that in some way I have become a permanent fixture in someone’s life. Process is what also draws me to printmaking, the act of carving an image into a printing plate is cathartic, as if I am literally carving a place for myself in art and history.

Place Settings is an installation of dishware representative of important people in life. Each person has been set a place at the table, they are given a plate, bowl, and cup. As a ceramic artist I see a deep connection between the work that my hands do to make pieces and the hands that hold them as they are used. There is a warmth knowing that I have held and molded a mug that someone will then mold their hands around every morning as they drink their coffee. It becomes a form of intimacy, that is what Place Settings is exploring, the relationships formed through functional art. Along with the intimacy formed with the user of the object, the pieces themselves are set in an intimate space. A family dinner, something so intrinsic to the connections we form with the people we love. The piece becomes a redefining of what family means, that it doesn’t have to be blood, but the people you meet along the way.

Body Study, a print installation made up of over 300 drypoint prints (measuring 4” x 5” each), explores the form of the fat body through small, abstracted views. The miniature size of the individual prints encourages the viewer to engage in moments of intimate looking as well as to step back and gain an understanding of a larger perspective, to experience the body in multiple ways. When seen as a whole, Body Study presents a fragmented view of a form, each print a small nook or cranny of a body. The prints, when seen separately, lose their connection to the body as a whole and stand on their own as landscapes. The installation as a whole overwhelms the viewers, 12’x 6’ it towers over the viewer and fills their entire field of vision.

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Body Study intaglio ink, archival paper

2021 (R)

A Seat at the Table (Installation View found furniture, stoneware, glaze

2021