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Art of Engagement: Practice-Led Research Into Concepts of Urban Aboriginal Art and Heritage

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Art of Engagement: Practice-Led Research Into Concepts of Urban Aboriginal Art and Heritage Art of Engagement: Practice-led research into concepts of urban Aboriginal art and heritage. Garry Charles Jones Submitted: July 2019 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University Word Count: 39,600 © Copyright by Garry Charles Jones 2019 Statement of Originality To the best of my knowledge and belief, the exegesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the exegesis itself. 11 December 2019 _____________________________ Date: _________________________ Garry Charles Jones i Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the valuable support and assistance from my supervisors Alex Martinis Roe, Amanda Stuart, and Ian McLean, as well as previous supervisors Wendy Teakel, Paul Hay and Gordon Bull. More generally, I want to acknowledge the ANU School of Art and Design, and the many generous people I have encountered over the years. ii Abstract My practice-led research explores developments that have underpinned contemporary Aboriginal art within an urban Australian context, taking into consideration the social, cultural, and political influences from colonial times through to the present. This inquiry has three primary components: the emergence of an urban-based Aboriginal ontology, the colonial archive and its ambivalent role in Aboriginal cultural healing and contemporary cultural heritage, and an interrogation of the conceptual tension between ontological being and becoming in the context of Aboriginality today. I ask the question: What does it mean for me, disconnected from traditional material cultural practices, to “authenticate” my life and cultural identity, through reclaiming and replicating archival objects? These objects were created in the context of functional and/or ceremonial practice, under colonisation became objects of ethnographic curiosity and taxonomy, and are increasingly objects of contemporary art and contemporary cultural heritage. My exploration has been informed by urban-based artists of the 1980s through to the present, including the Sydney-based Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative and individual artists such as Trevor Nickolls, Gordon Bennett, Destiny Deacon, Leah King Smith, Christian Thompson and Brook Andrew. I have also explored the work of the late-nineteenth century New South Wales south coast artist, Mickey of Ulladulla. These artists have been significant for me in the context of the time in which they were practising, the expressions of Aboriginality I perceive demonstrated through their respective art works, and the relationship between identity, place and heritage. I draw on theorists, historians and philosophers to inform my thesis. These include Aileen Moreton-Robinson and Martin Nakata, who represent important perspectives on contemporary Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. Rosi Braidotti, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Nikos Papastergiadis provide valuable insight into contemporary discourses of globalism and cosmopolitanism. I consider these theories with regard to the “diasporic” nature of many urban-based Aboriginal realities, and the increasingly global-local in nature of Indigenous art engagements. I also draw on the work of Ian McLean who has contributed significantly to the critical understanding of contemporary Aboriginal art, historically, and as a manifestation of the ongoing process of transcultural negotiation. The resultant artworks represent a personal archive of cultural ambivalence – a serious folly – consisting of polystyrene artefacts inspired by early archival investigations, colonial notions of cultural progress, and the problematic concept of cultural authenticity. Materially and culturally problematic, the work struggles with personal experiences of alienation and abjection. iii Contents Statement of Originality .............................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... iii Contents .................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Figures .......................................................................................................................... v Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One – Urban Aboriginal Art and Identity ................................................................... 10 Identity ................................................................................................................................. 10 Me ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Art......................................................................................................................................... 24 Heritage ................................................................................................................................ 34 Thinking Forward ................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter Two – Archival Engagements ..................................................................................... 41 The Colonial Museum .......................................................................................................... 42 Archival Trauma ................................................................................................................... 49 Contemporary Indigenous Interventions............................................................................. 55 Institutional Interventions ................................................................................................... 60 Re-Thinking Engagement ..................................................................................................... 62 Backwards and Forward ....................................................................................................... 71 Chapter Three – My Practice ................................................................................................... 74 Early Studio Developments – Concepts and Materials ........................................................ 75 Later Studio Developments – Concepts and Materials ....................................................... 87 Artefacts of Authenticity ...................................................................................................... 92 Documenting the Collection ................................................................................................ 94 Final Works – A Serious Folly? ........................................................................................... 101 Final Works – on Display .................................................................................................... 104 Chapter Four – Cosmopolitanism .......................................................................................... 107 A Crosscurrent of Essentialism and Cosmopolitanism ...................................................... 108 Cosmopolitan Concerns ..................................................................................................... 112 Aboriginality and Cosmopolitanism ................................................................................... 116 Asserting Indigenous Voices .............................................................................................. 120 Revisiting My Practice ........................................................................................................ 125 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 128 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 133 iv Table of Figures Figure 1. Raymond Meek, Argoonie Doowie, 1988, lithograph, 58.3 x 48.0 cm ..................... 28 Figure 2. Jeffrey Samuels, A Changing Continent, 1986, oil painting, 187.0 x 124.2 cm. ....... 28 Figure 3. Michael Riley, Portrait of Maria, 1985, photograph, 45.5 x 47.9 cm. ...................... 28 Figure 4. Trevor Nickolls, Contemporary Traditional, 1978, oil painting, 165 x 60 cm. .......... 30 Figure 5. Gordon Bennett, Outsider, 1988, oil and acrylic painting, 290.5 x 179.5 cm ........... 31 Figure 6. Gordon Bennett, Self portrait (But I always wanted to be one of the good guys), 1990, oil painting, 150.0 x 260.0 cm. ....................................................................................... 33 Figure 7. J.M. Crossland, A Portrait of Nannultera, a young Poonindie cricketer, 1854, oil painting, 99.0 x 78.8 cm. .......................................................................................................... 52 Figure 8. Destiny Deacon, Eva Johnson, Writer, 1994, photograph, 72.8 x 58.6. ................... 52 Figure 9. Christian Thompson, Emotional Striptease, 2003, photograph, 107.6 x 95.4 cm. ... 52 Figure 10. Leah King-Smith, Untitled #10, Patterns of Connection series, 1991, photograph, 100.6 × 99.8 cm. ......................................................................................................................
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