The Intercultural Broker in Indigenous Australian Art
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2016 Making in translation: the intercultural broker in indigenous Australian art Quentin Sprague University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. A court may impose penalties and award damages in relation to offences and infringements relating to copyright material. Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong. Recommended Citation Sprague, Quentin, Making in translation: the intercultural broker in indigenous Australian art, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of the Arts, English and Media, University of Wollongong, 2016. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4807 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Indigenous Australians are advised that this article may include images or names of people now deceased. Continue MAKING IN TRANSLATION The intercultural broker in indigenous Australian art Quentin Sprague Supervisor: Prof. Ian McLean This thesis is presented as part of the requirements for the conferral of the degree: Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) School of the Arts, English and Media Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts University of Wollongong 2 Declaration by author I, Quentin Sprague, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the conferral of the degree Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD), from the University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. This document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Quentin Sprague 12 May, 2016 3 Statement of contributions to jointly authored works contained in the thesis None Statement of contributions by others to the thesis as a whole None Statement of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None Published works by the author adapted within this thesis Sprague Q, ‘The extraordinary Mrs Gabori: the meteoric career of Kaiadilt painter Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda’, The Monthly, March 2015, pp. 32-38. --- ‘Ngarra: ulterior motives, unresolved objects’, in H Skeritt (ed.), No Boundaries, Nevada Art Museum, USA, 2015, pp. 88-103. --- ‘Collaborators: intercultural brokerage and the transaction of identity’, in I McLean (ed.), Double Desire: Interculturality and Indigenous contemporary art, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, 2014, pp. 40-48. --- ‘Pushing the line: an unlikely artistic collaboration in the Kimberley’, The Monthly, summer edition, Dec 2013 – Jan 2014, pp. 32-38. --- ‘White Lines: the recent work of Nyapanyapa Yunupingu’, Discipline, no.3, 2013, pp. 59-68. Published works by the author relevant to the thesis but not forming part of it --- ‘Bringing them home: Encounters at The National Museum of Australia’, The Monthly, summer edition, Dec 2015 – Jan 2016, pp. 72-74. --- ‘The sky and the upper world’, in S Frangos (ed.), Timothy Cook, University of Western Australia Press, WA, 2015, pp. 96-113. --- ‘Speaking between worlds: Tiwi art and contemporary art’, Sturgeon, issue 3 (2015), pp 74-81. 4 Acknowledgements The University of Wollongong, which generously awarded me a Dean’s Special Scholarship for the duration of this thesis; my supervisor prof. Ian McLean, whose thinking in the field remains among the most creative; and the range of colleagues, artists, informal advisors and friends who provided immeasurable support through conversation, guidance and engagement. In addition, special thanks are due to the interview subjects who have informed key aspects of this thesis – without their generous time and patience there would have been little information to work with. 5 To my family and Leah 6 MAKING IN TRANSLATION The intercultural broker in indigenous Australian art Quentin Sprague CONTENTS Abstract .................................................... 11 List of illustrations ....................................... 12 Introduction ................................................ 18 0.1 Methods .......................................... 18 0.2 What is indigenous contemporary art? ............. 28 0.3 Why brokerage? ................................... 34 0.4 Chapter outline .................................. 45 PART ONE: A THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL BASIS Chapter 1: Aboriginal art at the interstices between worlds . 49 1.1 The house at Bennelong Point ..................... 49 1.2 Art in the contact zone/an intercultural dimension ................................................. 60 1.3 A political dimension ............................ 66 1.4 Lighting up ...................................... 72 1.5 At the interstices ............................... 78 Chapter 2: The curator as intercultural broker: The Aboriginal Memorial and Djirrididi (Kingfisher) ........................ 83 2.1 Introducing The Memorial ........................ 83 2.2 The broker and the curator ...................... 91 2.3 Making The Memorial ............................. 100 2.4 A kingfisher in the contemporary art museum ..... 106 Chapter 3: Creative intimacies: the Art Coordinator as broker ........................................................... 119 3.1 The Art Coordinator as broker .................. 119 3.2 Pragmatism and collaboration ................... 123 3.3 Before Bardon .................................. 128 3.4 Unresolved objects .............................. 133 3.5 A mediated visual discourse ..................... 137 3.6 An Aboriginal artist is something to be ......... 142 3.7 An historical contingency ...................... 149 9 PART TWO: CASE STUDIES Chapter 4: Beautiful things: reading intercultural exchange in the recent practice of Nyapanyapa Yunupingu ................ 155 4.1 White lines .................................... 155 4.2 Materiality and meaning ........................ 163 4.3 ‘Just paint’ ................................... 167 4.4 Finding beautiful things ....................... 176 4.5 Relative meanings ............................... 182 4.6 Painting with light ............................ 189 4.7 Conclusion ..................................... 194 Chapter 5: Pushing the line: Jirrawun, Paddy Bedford and Tony Oliver ..................................................... 203 5.1 Arrivals ....................................... 203 5.2 Town life ...................................... 208 5.3 Hard stories ................................... 216 5.4 A new modernism ................................ 224 5.5 Endings ........................................ 240 5.6 Displaced modernists ........................... 248 5.7 Conclusion ..................................... 253 Chapter 6: Searching for Sally Gabori: The making of a Kaiadilt painter ........................................... 266 6.1 The market as a social configuration ........... 266 6.2 ‘A despised minority’ .......................... 270 6.3 Consultants, coordinators and commercial dealers 277 6.4 Unequal exchanges .............................. 289 Conclusion: Dissonant objects: Aboriginal art and the global contemporary ............................................... 303 Bibliography .............................................. 338 10 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the role of intercultural brokerage in the production and mediation of indigenous contemporary art in Australia. It aims to illuminate something of the broader movement by way of third party brokers – in most cases non- Aboriginal – who have acted between the art world on the one hand, and on the other the local contexts within which remotely-based Aboriginal artists work. These figures are varied, but include curators and – more prominently – art coordinators (a key position within remote community Aboriginal art centres). In the literature on indigenous contemporary art in Australia, sustained examination of such intermediaries remains largely absent, regardless of the often-central role they have played. This thesis intends to undertake initial steps towards addressing this oversight through a review of a number of critical and historical precedents and through three sustained contemporary case studies that draw upon interviews with key brokers. In doing so, it asks a central question: How might we model, and thus articulate, the role of third party brokerage within the broader network of authorial agencies that surround indigenous contemporary art in Australia? 11 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chapter