1 In/Genuine Encounters: Fiona Hall's Cross-Cultural Creations a Thesis
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In/genuine Encounters: Fiona Hall's Cross-cultural Creations A thesis presented by Sophie E. Prince 638005 to The School of Culture and Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in the field of Art History AHIS40021 in the School of Culture and Communication The University of Melbourne Supervisor: Dr. Susan Lowish October 2016 Word Count: 15, 023 1 Abstract This thesis examines the integrity of cross-cultural relationships in a particular art world context. Through critically examining selected cross-cultural artist residencies, this research project adds to the field of postcolonial analysis of cross-cultural engagement through art. Fiona Hall’s cross-cultural residencies within colonised cultures that are not her own makes her an interesting case study for contributing to postcolonial discourse. Hall has undertaken three artist residencies amongst colonised cultures that were specifically intended to be immersive and educational experiences. Inquiries into the intentions and outcomes of Hall’s residencies address my thesis question: To what extent do the cross-cultural experiences undertaken by Fiona Hall, reinforce the colonial traditions they seek to overcome? 2 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 4 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 9 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 15 Structure of Thesis ................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 1: Asialink-sponsored Residency at Lunuganga Estate at Colombo, Sri Lanka ...................................................................................................................................... 18 Lunuganga Estate: People and Places, Past and Present .......................................... 18 Art, Beauty and Violence ......................................................................................... 24 Negating the Naiveté of the Novelty Experience .................................................... 28 Chapter 2: Nomad Art Productions Artists Residency, Djalkiri: We are standing on their names, Blue Mud Bay, Australia ......................................................................... 37 Habitus and Logic .................................................................................................... 37 Djalkiri and Blue Mud Bay ...................................................................................... 39 Comparing Cultures ................................................................................................. 43 Appreciation and Transformation ............................................................................ 47 Chapter 3: The Venice Biennale Collaboration with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers ....... 55 The Venice Biennale: Representing Australia ......................................................... 55 Protest through Participation: Having a Seat at the Table ....................................... 63 Integrity and Collaboration ...................................................................................... 68 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 71 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 76 Primary Sources ....................................................................................................... 76 Books and Journals .................................................................................................. 76 Catalogues ................................................................................................................ 90 Ephemera ................................................................................................................. 91 Webology ................................................................................................................. 92 List of Illustrations ....................................................................................................... 98 Illustrations ................................................................................................................ 105 3 Acknowledgements My sincere thanks go to my supervisor, Dr. Susan Lowish, for her ongoing support and clarity of thought that have provided me with the guidance I needed to maintain a sense of direction and rigor throughout the research and writing of my thesis. I would also like to thank the librarians of The University of Melbourne’s Baillieu Library and Lenton Parr Music, Visual and Performing Arts Library, as well as the staff of the National Gallery’s A.G.L Shaw Research Library and the National Gallery of Australia’s research library as each team was invaluable to my research process. Thank you also to my friends and family, particularly Tri, Nina, my mum Fiona and dad Miles whose emotional and physical support is what has kept me motivated and inspired leading up to this year and throughout it. And lastly, I wish to acknowledge and thank my late-grandmother Bevy, for her legacy of love, laughter and family, which brought both perspective and passion to my work and my life. 4 Introduction Fiona Hall describes herself as an opportunist - a quality that has informed her itinerant way of life.1 The diversity of Hall’s experiences, themes and styles that have concurrently underpinned her art, provides a dynamic context for examining why, how and with what implications artists continue to embark upon the trajectory of cross-cultural engagement. These inquiries into the intentions and outcomes of Hall’s practice seek to address my thesis question: To what extent do the cross-cultural experiences undertaken by Fiona Hall, reinforce the colonial traditions they seek to overcome? Over the course of her artistic career, spanning more than thirty-five- years, Hall has participated in numerous residencies, travel-scholarships, artist camps, commission projects and collaborations that have facilitated her engagement with a great number of diverse environments.2 This thesis specifically explores the experiences undertaken by Hall that were geared towards facilitating cross-cultural exchanges. The focus of this thesis emerges out of recognising a lack of academic research into the role of residencies. Although there are a variety of residency models3 a comprehensive understanding of the unique kinds of relationships, ideas and art that emerge from residencies, is effectively demonstrated through examining one conceptual model. It is important to forge a path of critical engagement with the intentions and outcomes of residencies in order to develop a comprehensive body of 1 Hall cited in Gregory O’Brien, Paula Savage, and Vivienne Webb, Fiona Hall: Force Field, exh. cat., Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008, p. 33. 2 Julie Ewington, Fiona Hall, Annandale: Piper Press, 2005, pp. 105-10. 3 An Xiao, ‘Surveying Arts in Residence’, Hyperallergic, April 3 2012. Accessible: https://hyperallergic.com/49397/surveying-arts-residencies-part-1/. 5 literature on the ways for artists and art world organisations to uphold integrity during creative practice. The notion of integrity informed my decision to focus on cross- cultural residencies and to subsequently apply postcolonial theory to understand the significance of residencies. The conceptualisation of a postcolonial approach4 is consulted in order to determine the capacity for residencies to facilitate genuine and reciprocal cross-cultural encounters. The three significant cross-cultural experiences undertaken by Hall that this thesis explores are: the Asialink-sponsored residency at Lunuganga Estate at Colombo, Sri Lanka between 1999 and 2005; an artists-in-residence program facilitated by Nomad Art Productions, entitled Djalkiri: We Are Standing on Their Names that took place in Blue Mud Bay on the eastern coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory in 2009; and a collaboration with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers that was carried out during an artists’ camp Pilakatilyuru in Western Australia in 2014, with the resulting works exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2015. Out of the numerous experiences that have enabled Hall to work in different contexts, these are all of the residencies that specifically promoted cross-cultural engagement. The research parameters of examining all of Hall’s cross-cultural residencies, is a frame through which to examine the implications of developing an art practice that involves cultures other than ones own. 4 For a definitive characterisation of postcolonial approach see Leela Gandhi, ‘Theory and Practice in Postcolonial Studies’, Graham Huggan (ed.), The Oxford handbook of postcolonial studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 412-5. 6 Hall recounts how at young age she possessed an eagerness to interrogate the world, which is an energy that has continued to manifest in both the opportunities seized and artworks made over the course of her artistic