Victorian College of the Arts - Theses
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ItemImages and imagination of Adventure( 2020)“The Images and Imagination of Adventure” investigates the use of the narratives of adventure in contemporary art practices, and presents the research outcomes through an exhibition and a dissertation. The term “narratives of adventure” is used to describe the trope of adventure that is herein argued as being largely inherited from colonial history. The exhibition component of this thesis was exhibited at the VCA Art Space in July 2018. It comprised of eight works: Projected in Gallery One to the left of the entrance was the short film Victoire which emerged early in the project. This first work was influential to the PhD development and it later informed Victoire-Machine, a viewing device installation that further explored potential modalities of adventure. The First of The Last Crusade, Scope, Lost and Found and Traversant were also displayed with viewing devices and along with the installation Art’Venture, all were presented in the Gallery Two in the center of the VCA Art Space. The final work that was produced, Glowry, was developed specifically for the exhibition and installed in the small adjacent space to the right of the entrance in Gallery Three. The practice-led research has identified three strategies that exist in contemporary art practices in relation to the narratives of adventure. Each chapter presents a different strategy, articulates the creative work undertaken in the PhD, contextualises it within contemporary art practices, and analyses it with a range of key texts. The first chapter, ‘Killing Adventure’, presents the first of three strategies: the artist adopting a critical posture towards adventure, and thus claiming that the colonial trope of exploration is no longer valid in the 21st century. This political approach to the narratives of adventure is observed and described in the work of contemporary artists, and enunciated through the work of Okwui Enwesor, particularly his take on the intensification of proximities in a global context. A portion of the creative body of work produced in the context of this PhD can be retrospectively examined through the lens of ‘Killing Adventure’. The work is contextualised in this framework, and then examined in conversation with the creative practice of other visual artists. The second chapter, ‘Adventure never died’, argues that some art practices develop a Neo-Romantic relationship with adventure, thus embracing or disregarding its problematic dimension and inadequacy. Within those contemporary practices there is a claim for continuity, and an approach to adventure as primarily an exploration of the self. This chapter contextualises the field of contemporary art by looking at the work of Jorg Heiser and his understanding of today’s art practices as ‘Neo-Romantic’. Once again, the creative component of this research was examined retrospectively in reference to this strategy and some of the creative works which fit in this conversation about the continuity of adventure are presented. The third chapter, ‘Adventure is Dead – Long Live Adventure’, presents the last of the three strategies. It has a much more playful relationship with the narratives of adventure. There is an acknowledgement that the ‘Golden Age of Adventure’ though colonialism is over, but there is a desire to play, recycle and reenact the material of adventure. The world has been mapped, the stories have been told: but now scenarios of adventure are used as a drive for adventure. The artists whom adopt this posture, and the creative work produced during this PhD that borrows some of the characteristics of this strategy, are discussed in conversation with the work of Nicolas Bourriaud, and particularly with his essay ‘Postproduction’.