CURATING THE CITY: UNPACKING CONTEMPORARY ART PRODUCTION AND SPATIAL POLITICS IN BRISBANE Louise Rollman BA (Visual Arts) (Hons), Queensland University of Technology Principal Supervisor: Professor Andrew McNamara Associate Supervisors: Dr Emma Felton External Associate Supervisor: Dr Gretchen Coombs Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Visual Arts, Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology 2018 Keywords Contemporary art; public art; commissioning for the public realm; curatorial practice; Henri Lefebvre, the right to the city and the right to imagine the city; arts policy infrastructure and institutionalization; cultural history. Curating the City: unpacking contemporary art production and spatial politics in Brisbane i Abstract Contemporary art and exhibition-making is increasingly deployed in the urban development and marketing of cities for political-economic benefit, yet the examination of the aesthetic and cultural aspects of urban life is curiously limited. In probing the unique political conditions of Brisbane, Australia, this thesis contrasts two periods — 1985-1988 and 2012-2015 — in order to more fully understand the critical pressures impacting upon the production of contemporary aesthetic projects. While drawing upon Henri Lefebvre's right to the city, and insisting upon a right to imagine the city, this thesis concludes that a consistent re-articulation of critical pressure, which anticipates oppositional positions, is necessary. Curating the City: unpacking contemporary art production and spatial politics in Brisbane ii Table of Contents Keywords .............................................................................................................. i Abstract ............................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................... iii List of Figures ..................................................................................................... vi Statement of Original Authorship ...................................................................... viii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. ix Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 1 Art and cities ....................................................................................................... 4 Researcher position ............................................................................................ 7 Purpose and Significance ................................................................................. 10 Chronology ....................................................................................................... 14 Exemplars ......................................................................................................... 16 Thesis Outline ................................................................................................... 21 Chapter 2 Literature Review ........................................................................... 25 Contemporary art and practice .......................................................................... 27 Curatorial practice and stewardship .................................................................. 29 Neoliberalism as a pervasive ideology .............................................................. 33 Neoliberalism and contemporary art ................................................................. 36 Neoliberalism, contemporary art and cities ....................................................... 39 Deployed and the tendency to instrumental outcomes for art ........................... 44 Institutional critique and its derivatives .............................................................. 48 Public art policy evaluations .............................................................................. 50 The politics of aesthetic .................................................................................... 55 Antagonism or ‘agonistic’ critique ...................................................................... 58 The right to imagine the city .............................................................................. 60 Imagining Brisbane ........................................................................................... 64 Summary and Implications ................................................................................ 68 Curating the City: unpacking contemporary art production and spatial politics in Brisbane iii Chapter 3 Methodology .................................................................................. 73 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 74 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................... 76 Data sources and collection .............................................................................. 78 1985-1988 | Exemplar 1: THAT Contemporary Art Space (1985-1988) ............ 82 1985-1988 | Exemplar 2: InterFace: City as a Work of Art, or City Under Redevelopment (1988), coordinated by artist Jeanelle Hurst ............................ 83 2012-2015 | Exemplar 3: Michael Parekowhai, The World Turns (2011-12) ..... 84 2012-2015 | Exemplar 4: Alice Lang, The Swell (2013), commissioned by Brisbane City Council (BCC) ............................................................................. 86 Selection process and criteria ........................................................................... 88 Discourse analysis ............................................................................................ 89 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 92 Chapter 4 Infrastructural opportunities before institutionalization ............ 93 The parameters of Bjelke-Petersen's influence ................................................. 94 The spectre of demolition .................................................................................. 96 THAT Contemporary Art Space (1985-1988) .................................................. 100 Networking sites and the “romance of individuals” .......................................... 106 Networking nationally and infrastructural activism ........................................... 109 Professional advocacy and infrastructural activism ......................................... 111 Queensland: A State for the Arts (1991) ......................................................... 113 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 116 Chapter 5 Institutionalization ....................................................................... 119 InterFace: City as a Work of Art, or City Under Redevelopment (1988) .......... 120 Queensland Artworkers' Alliance (QAA) generates employment opportunities 128 Art Built-in policy (1999-2007) ......................................................................... 131 Elevated curatorial role ................................................................................... 137 Demise of Artworkers' Alliance ........................................................................ 140 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 142 Chapter 6 Deinstitutionalization .................................................................. 145 Michael Parekowhai, The World Turns (2011-12) ........................................... 146 The Commissioner: QAGOMA ........................................................................ 150 State as client: art+place (2007-2012) ............................................................ 152 Representation by artist Fiona Foley ............................................................... 156 Clashing agendas: the political versus the cultural .......................................... 160 Public reception .............................................................................................. 166 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 169 Chapter 7 Instrumentalization ...................................................................... 173 Public art policies and cities ............................................................................ 175 Curating the City: unpacking contemporary art production and spatial politics in Brisbane iv Cultural strategies associated with Brisbane City Council (BCC) .................... 179 Development-led urban design ....................................................................... 184 Grow A Set, The Swell (2013) & Vibrant Laneways ........................................ 187 Creative Brisbane Creative Economy 2013-22 ............................................... 195 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 198 Chapter 8 Conclusions ................................................................................. 203 Summary of the research findings .................................................................. 205 Limitations and opportunities for further research ..........................................