Diana van der Harst is a multidisciplinary artist whose journey has resulted in the creation of an ever evolving Leftover Universe where Tender Time Sighs. While she has a focus on textile art, she also uses painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, photography and writing to seek and tell her story. Her creations originate from a meeting between inner and outer travels, from studying things up-close to things far away, from observing the small to observing the vast; a process of constantly shifting focus, a movement much like breathing. Tender Time Sighs; showing us leftovers, traces of transformation and encounters with animate and inanimate beings. Diana’s work is poetic, contemporary, intuitive, contemplative, intimate, emotional, whimsical, spiritual, narrative and embodies a magical realism.
Diana was born and raised in The Netherlands before she moved to Australia. It is in The Netherlands where Diana had her main art education and where she started exhibiting her works back in 2004. During a masterclass in textile design in The Netherlands in 2007 she was invited to exhibit her art in Tokyo, Japan. Since that exhibition she had 4 solo exhibitions and several work periods in Kyoto, Japan. Exhibiting for nearly 20 years now she showed her works in The Netherlands, Antwerp/Belgium, Melbourne, Perth, Tokyo and Kyoto/Japan. Diana is now focusing on her upcoming solo exhibition, during which she will be guiding creative activities as well as undertake an artist-in-residency. She is one of the participating artists in her community that opens up her home studio for the public to come and visit, an initiative that is held two weekends a year as part of an Art Trail. Several other projects are in development and she is open for commissions and collaborations.
Email: leftoveruniverse@gmail.com | Website: http://www.leftoveruniverse.com | Instagram: dhyana_in_a_leftover_universe
Daisy d’Urby is dancing in an ever evolving Leftover Universe and she is playing with the Moon as if it is a ball, a sphere made of mould, where mould symbolises transformation and impermanence. Leftover Universe where Tender Time Sighs is a sanctuary in its own. I consciously started building Leftover Universe since and came up with the name in 2010, but characters and elements came into being already in 2004 or earlier even.
“When nothing looked familiair; my surroundings, choices I made and the person staring back at me in the mirror….I started asking myself the questions: “Who am I? What am I? Where am I?” With those questions in my pocket a journey began. With little steps and big dreams I started walking, walking my very own path, inspired by life itself to find my way home”.
‘Finding Dhyana in a leftover universe where tender time sighs’
”While change and impermanence are the essence of the universe, Leftovers remind us that all is in constant transformation. Where one ends another comes alive. Acknowledging this truth enables me to shape the transformation without seeking to cling to permanence.”
In a Leftover Universe Diana aims to create sustainable, handmade, soul friendly products that don’t harm our environment and ourselves. Therefore natural materials are used as much as possible as well as leftovers to up-cycle the old.
“This world is full of leftovers and instead of disregarding them Leftover Universe believes in embracing and upgrading them. Radiating heart energy and breathing new life into the lost.”
‘An object made with love and care becomes a talisman and holds the power to make a little part of this world a better place’.
“Ancient craft techniques are highly valued in my Leftover Universe. Their deep history speak a language of their own, a language understood throughout the world and amongst all cultures. I try to keep them alive by using them in contemporary ways”.
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Leftover Universe 
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