Wonderlust: the influence of natural history illustration and ornamentation on perceptions of the exotic in Australia. College of Arts and Social Sciences Research School of Humanities and the Arts School of Art Visual Arts Graduate Program Doctor of Philosophy Nicola Jan Dickson Exegesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy March 2010 1 Exegesis of Studio Research Declaration of Originality I, ……………………………………………(signature and date) hereby declare that the thesis here presented is the outcome of the research project undertaken during my candidacy, that I am the sole author unless otherwise indicated, and that I have fully documented the source of ideas, references, quotations and paraphrases attributable to other authors. 2 Acknowledgements I am grateful for the support and critical feedback of the various people who have had been on my supervisory panel at different times. These include Vivienne Binns, Nigel Lendon, Chaitanya Sambrani and Deborah Singleton. I would specifically like to acknowledge the constructive criticism that Ruth Waller has provided and her establishment of a constructive and engaging environment for post-graduate painting students at the ANU School of Art. I would also like to thank Patsy Hely, Raquel Ormella, Robert Boynes and Patsy Payne who have all readily offered advice. The insightful encouragement from other post- graduate peers strengthened my research and resolve. I would particularly like to thank Suzanne Moss, Ella Whateley, Jude Rae and Hanna Hoyne. Thanks also go to Kerri Land, Angela Braniff and my daughter Kathryn who have provided help installing the examination exhibition. Advice from Georgina Buckley regarding use of the Endnote program has been invaluable and much appreciated. Likewise David Booth from Plastic Creations of Fyshwick and Simon Ramsey both provided valuable technical support. The Exegesis and Dissertation have been strengthened by my son Robert and my husband David’s thorough proof-reading and questioning of the documents. Indeed my family’s encouragement and support has been fundamental to my engagement with this project over the four year period. 3 Abstract This thesis is comprised of two parts: a Studio Research component with an accompanying Exegesis (66%), and a Dissertation (33%). The Dissertation examines the historical and cultural context of the production of natural history illustration and ornamentation, and the formal qualities of these visual forms that enabled them to inform and disseminate exotic constructions and perceptions. These visual forms were a significant part of the intellectual and cultural framework of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and frequently represented the ‘other’ as desirable and different. The aesthetic responses generated by such exotic representations operated subliminally to develop and reinforce dualistic notions surrounding the difference of the distant ‘other’ in comparison to the European self. The Dissertation examines the specificity of the operation of these visual forms in relation to exotic perceptions of the Australian ‘other’ from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, and develops an argument about the rise of a unique mode of perceiving the Australian ‘other’. The Dissertation elaborates the theoretical context for the studio research which is an evocation and examination of the aesthetic experience of the exotic, informed by natural history illustration and ornamentation. A process of quotation and transformation of historical imagery was developed to investigate foundational representations and perceptions of the Australian exoticised ‘other’ and the manner in which this imagery persists and reforms as it circulates in society. The imagery is reworked by a painting process that utilises the material and formal properties of paint to explore the nature of the aesthetic perception of the exotic while also providing a metaphoric model of the manner in which the self is defined in relation to the ‘other’. The process offers an alternative mode of conceiving the ‘other’ within the post-colonial concept of hybridity. The results of the studio research are elaborated in this Exegesis and will be presented as a site-specific installation of paintings in the ANU School of Art Gallery from 17 to 26 March 2010. 4 Table of Contents Exegesis of Studio Research.........................................................................................2 Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................3 Abstract .........................................................................................................................4 List of figures ................................................................................................................6 Introduction: influences and intentions.........................................................................8 The ornamented natural history image: 2006-2007 ......................................................9 Quoting history ...........................................................................................................14 Wallpaper and the uncanny.........................................................................................18 Picturesque visions..................................................................................................21 Classique visions.....................................................................................................23 Baudin’s boudoir.....................................................................................................24 ‘Other’ visions.........................................................................................................25 ‘Other’ visions Exhibition, 2008: Foyer Gallery School of Art, ANU...................27 Locating the Australian ‘other’ ...................................................................................29 Painting as a research methodology: 2008-2009 ........................................................31 Painting ut poesis ....................................................................................................31 Painting as discourse...............................................................................................33 Painting, the exotic and visual pleasure ..................................................................34 Ornament and painting............................................................................................40 The Gathering: Group exhibition, September 2008................................................42 The relational nature of the self and ‘other’: An ‘other’ vision...................................44 Framing .......................................................................................................................50 Ornamental natural history illustrations......................................................................52 The exotic hybrid series: 2009-2010...........................................................................54 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................60 Bibliography................................................................................................................65 Appendix B: Studio Research Questions ....................................................................70 Appendix C: Curriculum Vitae ...................................................................................72 Appendix D: Approved research proposal..................................................................76 General Aim............................................................................................................76 Studio Practice Proposal .........................................................................................76 Dissertation Proposal ..............................................................................................78 Summary .................................................................................................................79 Bibliography............................................................................................................80 5 List of figures Figure 1: (left) Sarah Stone, Small Paraquet, c. 1790, watercolour on paper, 23 x 17 cm, State Library of NSW, PXA 909/18 ...............................................................................10 Figure 2: (right) Sarah Stone, A Tapoa Tafa, c. 1790, watercolour on paper, 17 x 23 cm, State Library of NSW, PXA 909/28. ..............................................................................10 Figure 3: (left) Nicola Dickson, Kangaroo, 2006, acrylic and oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm. .........................................................................................................................................11 Figure 4: (right) Sarah Stone, Kangaroo, c.1790, watercolour on paper, 23 x 17 cm, State Library of NSW, PXA 909/25. ..............................................................................11 Figure 5: (left) Ferdinand Bauer, Noisy friarbird 1802, watercolour on paper, 34 x 51.1 cm. From, An Exquisite Eye: The Australian Flora & Fauna Drawings 1801 — 1820 of Ferdinand Bauer, Peter Watts, Jo Anne Pomfrett and David Mabberley, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, Glebe, 1997............................................................12 Figure 6: (right) Nicola Dickson, Bauer’s Friarbird,