Victorian College of the Arts - Theses
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ItemThree Act Plays( 2021)Three Act Plays is a practice-led Master of Fine Arts (Visual Art) research project that considers how sculpture and performance combine to act as metaphor for audience/viewer relations. The research explores what it might mean to subjectivise or flatten these relationships within an interdisciplinary practice, and incorporates analysis of works that use cross disciplinary moments to further interrogate the discussion. Through sculptural and performance video works created throughout the research, the project seeks to elaborate upon definitions of the ‘backstage’, the ‘prop’, the ‘rehearsal’, and ‘the audience’ as a way to explore a space of inter-subjectivity. The dissertation addresses these tropes via a re-reading of Michael Fried’s influential 1967 essay ‘Art and Objecthood’, prompting a critical re-evaluation of the relationships between sculpture and performance.
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ItemLoss in a simulated environment( 2022)This practice-based thesis examines photogrammetry as a form of exposure that brings loss into presence. Through reference to the artworks that comprise the basis of the research, this thesis considers the photogrammetric model through a series of discourses – phenomenological, spectral, virtual and dialectical – in order to map this presencing of loss within a contemporary historical and technological context. The key question that this research seeks to address is how does three-dimensionality expand the limits of mapping loss in photographic practice? This thesis interrogates that concern across four chapters, with each focusing on a specific, and interrelated, set of theoretical understandings, and through a sustained consideration of various photogrammetric artworks produced between 2015 and 2021. Drawing on the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, Chapter One: Thickening as Melancholy proceeds with a phenomenological account of photogrammetry involving sight and touch, and a reconsideration of the perceptual and technological limits of the image-form through the concepts of thickening, melancholia and ethics. These dimensions of image-form are developed with reference to the work of Roland Barthes, Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Blanchot, Julia Kristeva, Walter Benjamin, and to Chris Marker’s La Jetee. Nancy’s conception of the ground, a key term within this research, is also considered through photogrammetry’s creation of image-form. Chapter Two: Hauntology, considers Derrida’s neologism as a methodology for mapping collective spectral loss through artworks that reconstruct The Gatwick Private Hotel – a rooming house that became a reality television set, and the Mantra Bell Hotel – a prison for refugees. I relate Derrida’s account of the spectral capacities of television and commodity to the photogrammetric capacities of these artworks with reference to Benjamin, Mark Fisher, Boris Groys, Fredric Jameson and Matthew Fuller and artworks by Metahaven, Manus Island Recording Collective and John Gerrard. In Chapter Three: Alice, the prosthetic and cartographic potential of photogrammetry is explored through Gilles Deleuze’s concepts of Actuality and Virtuality and the titular figure of Alice in Wonderland. Deleuze’s accounts of cinema and machines are elaborated through the artwork James Asleep, a model that was reanimated as a screened film work. Contemporary sense and technical media are further discussed through reference to Hito Steyerl, Doug Aitken, Jeremy Shaw, Georges Perec, Jon Rafman and Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi. Chapter Four: Benjamin and the Dialectical Model considers the photogrammetric through Benjamin’s concept of the dialectical image and with reference to Miriam Hansen, Susan Buck-Morss and the work of Forensic Architecture. Photogrammetry is considered in terms of its potential for opening new historical methods for perceiving dialectical models as it re-assembles, re-spatialises and re-temporalises the photographic. Across each of these four chapters the photogrammetric model is explored in terms of the new kinds of perception that emerge from beyond the four corners of the still photograph. Through this detailed examination of photogrammetry, the capacity of these artworks to produce technical-sensible perceptions of lost or absent subjects – already virtual and spectral because they cannot be seen or are no longer – is considered so that they can be addressed in the future.
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ItemLightning in the middle( 2021)Lightning In The Middle (LIM) Methods of Creative Practice Bon Mott acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the ancient land named Australia by Matthew Flinders from 1804 and the peoples of the Kulin Nation where Bon Mott lives and works. Bon Mott acknowledges that the land, sea, and sky were never ceded and pays deep respect to First Nations people past, present, and emerging. Lightning in the Middle (LIM) draws from transdisciplinary transformative mixed method (TTMM) research methods from a neurodiverse perspective. The creative outputs of LIM are driven by transdisciplinary processes that focus on installation activated by performance (IAP) informed by sculpture, choreography, industrial design, and performance art. Emphasis is placed on this as marginalised or misunderstood experts are integral to this research. LIM’s process driven IAP is achieved through developing and utilising transdisciplinary, transformative mixed methods (TTMM) research to produce creative outcomes. Lightning in the Middle (LIM) IAP examines gender identity by bringing together concepts from Indigenous Knowledge, astrophysics, and feminist philosophies to consider the beneficial impact of nonbinary identity on contemporary society. AC/DC songwriter Bon Scott was aware the band’s name also meant ‘bisexual’, and when a journalist asked Bon if they were the AC or the DC, Bon replied, “Neither, I’m the lightning flash in the middle.” Bon Scott embodied the role of the trickster, an archetype common in First Nations traditions of the world. To the Lakota (Lakhota Lakhota), Teton Sioux (Thithunwan) people of the northern Turtle Island (North America), the trickster is called Heyokha, a person in the community who connects with the science of lightning that engages in unconventional and contrarian behaviour. Artist Bon Mott embodies this concept through their artistic practice by departing from the normative binary approach to gender by identifying as neither man nor woman, but as lightning. The name Intergalactic Plasma comes from emerging scientific research that shows the plasma/energy we call lightning is powered by cosmic rays. Originating from supernovae (dying stars) explosions in intergalactic space, cosmic rays enter the Earth’s atmosphere and produce a runaway breakdown of quantum particles that create a pathway for lightning. As feminist philosopher and physicist Karen Barad and writer and performance artist Amrou Al-Kadhi argue, the quantum world is one filled with contradictions and non-binary states of being. LIM concluded with Intergalactic Plasma: a way back to go forward: a photographic collaboration of artists who are immersed in the performance and creation of lightning to challenge exclusive gender norms and promote inclusive social and artistic practices. Bon Mott’s collaborative portraits of these artists are featured on high-quality silk, which performs like plasma when activated by choreography and movement. By looking back to the ancient knowledge systems of Indigenous people, collaborating with queer and Indigenous communities, and researching modern astrophysics, we may consider expansive and inclusive states of being to find our own quantum pathway forward.
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ItemSpace is occurring( 2019)SPACE IS OCCURRING is a research project comprised of twelve public exhibitions spanning 2016-2019, including an examination exhibition presentation at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery from 5-16 December 2019, and a written dissertation. In this MFA, assessment is divided as: 75% creative practice and 25% written dissertation. The four-year research project has investigated attentiveness, and negotiations of attentiveness, within contexts that situate, exhibit, display, frame or present contemporary art. Professional opportunities to actualise exhibition works have been taken as resources for doing/thinking research. This set of exhibition works is understood as concurrent research and outcome: artistic decision-making systems, conceptual working questions and professional or ethical mitigations converge and overlap during this doing/thinking. The vocational context of exhibiting within existing visual arts institutions has been the main resource to apply and test research concerns. In addressing this methodology of doing/thinking in the dynamic in situ realm, the written dissertation proposes the concept of ‘infield’. The term ‘infield’, borrowed from its sporting context, is repurposed as means for understanding each specific exhibition context as a dynamic location that is always in an active state of play. The research draws from an engagement with Bulgarian/French philosopher Julia Kristeva’s theories of ‘semiotic chora’ and ‘in-progress time’. These concepts support an engagement with the time-space of exhibitions as happening in motion, continuously beginning anew. The relation and interrelation of temporal and spatial experience within systems for making and experiencing art is the focus for an investigation into the writings of theorists including Andre Lepecki, as well as the practices of contemporary artists who work across at least two of the following: sculpture, sound, choreography and/or film. Specific works from artists John Cage, Simone Forti, Marco Fusinato, Douglas Gordon, Robert Morris, Ute Muller, Steve Paxton, Geoff Robinson and Daniel von Sturmer are included in this investigation into artistic strategies within this field. Exhibition works are developed and refined as projects that operate as systems for the spatial and temporal conditions and materials of each exhibition context. Within works, sculptural and filmic means are orchestrated as fields of interactions, and interferences, scored within the spatial and temporal conditions of exhibition context. Fixity and stasis – taken as a lingering museological construct of gallery spaces – are approached as problems to be disrupted, made evident, or a combination thereof. Often specific spatiotemporal overlay procedures develop, which may then be transferred upon (and reinformed by) subsequent professional exhibition opportunities, for different institutions. The application and potential reapplication of exhibition work systems – for different exhibition outcomes at different times – has allowed for a comparative analysis of the manner in which these operate with and within the contingencies of each specific exhibition context.
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ItemStrategies: an artist mother's maintenance manifesto( 2019)Becoming a mother is life-changing: it is well documented that it challenges the sense of self and identity. Maintaining an art practice while mothering could be defined as work. There is substantial literature to support the idea that mothering is a discipline just like art is. This involves ‘maternal thinking,’ a multiple-variable thought process used when caring for children. To support this notion, feminist theorists have developed the term matricentric or mother-centered feminism. This positions mothering more as a practice than an identity. This research paper is informed by matricentric feminist ideologies. Given these contributions to the current narrative surrounding motherhood, the idealised image of the ‘good’ mother still prevails in Western society. It appears that to be a ‘good mother’ a woman needs to put her children first. This is at the expense of her desires, passions, and interests. Based on personal first-hand experience as a mother, the widely accepted idea of the ‘good mother’ seems to stem from a patriarchal notion of motherhood that is disempowering and unrealistic. It is perceived that childrearing is gendered: men tend to generally be less involved in it while women are expected to be totally involved. How does one navigate these prevailing stereotypes and expectations surrounding the idea of the mother who is also an artist? Information on how to manage this conundrum remains an emergent field. Can matricentric feminism be present in an art practice in a seemingly patriarchal society? With practice-led research, informed by matricentric feminism, Strategies: An Artist Mother’s Maintenance Manifesto aims to investigate what kind of processes or strategies emerge from the labour expended when mothering and art making simultaneously. It seeks to validate the seemingly private nature of a mother’s work commonly associated with motherhood by devising four artistic strategies to connect the private to a public exhibition space. An autoethnographic methodology will be applied for this enquiry. Day-to-day personal experience as a mother and artist will be used as a reference, vis-a-vis the current discourse surrounding motherhood. This investigation seeks to contribute new narratives on the topic of motherhood and art. This will be achieved in part by applying the concept of trans/performance. The latter consists in connecting the work entailed in everyday mothering with the work involved in making artworks for an exhibition. In other words, trans/performance takes the work of a mother which has been commonly associated with the private and the domestic across into the public sphere where the art exhibition is held. The resulting creative outcomes or “strategies” emulate the works of the American artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Her art practice exposed through performance the invisible labour associated with motherhood in conjunction with other tasks associated with the maintenance of a city. It is suggested that an image of the ideal mother follows gendered conservative values. Framed around a matricentric feminist lens, the research reveals the complexity behind the responsibilities entailed in being both a mother and an artist, beyond societal expectations. An artist mother’s creative process is documented through personal diary entries, through descriptions of the major artworks and creative endeavors conducted for this research. To document this development are four installation works that investigate being a mother and an artist. These works manifest through sculpture, photography portraiture and video. The final outcome of this research is an installation in a gallery space. Over 200 sand-filled calico bags, with the word ‘MOTHER’ stenciled on them, are arranged in the space. Also secured on the gallery floor, walls and ceiling are a series of white wax and acrylic sculptures of the artist’s arm. A large, black and white photographic print is mounted on a wall. This work features a portrait of the artist holding both her children in her arms. Another work in the space is a video installation where the artist is seen in a series of clips cleaning sandbags and using sandbags to control water flooding into an outdoor landscape. The audio recording contains a combination of background noise and the artist’s voice in conversation.
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ItemHabitation procedures: adjusted dwelling space and sculpture practice in situ( 2019)This research project enquires into relations between sculpture practice, adjustments of space by inhabitants of dwellings and the siting of artworks as installation and intervention. It examines how acts of dwelling and making correspond as habitation procedures; as everyday processes of amending space and objects. Understood as a female will-to-identity they suggest new ways of constructing the experience of encountered sculpture and the passage of the domestic into public discourse. The research takes place through domestic sites and related exhibition activity, embodying experiences that overlay places of living and working, home and studio, residency and gallery. These include a Caravan mobile home in Narooma, NSW; a 1960s mud-brick residence, Birrarung House in Eltham, Victoria and a gallery residency in Bendigo, Victoria. Habitation procedures are practices of the dialogical; an interchange of voices that constitute new and compound meanings (Mikhail Bakhtin,1982), of in-betweeness and dialectical experience (Jane Rendell, 2006), of change through the experience of time and space (Massey, 2005) and of mediation. The communities of practice informing the project include the Womanhouse Project (1971), Lygia Clark, Andrea Zittel and Heide Bucher.