School of Culture and Communication - Theses
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ItemDestiny Disrupted: Contemporary Islamic Art and the Neo-Orientalist turn( 2023-11)Since the late 1700’s, Islamic material culture and visual art has been categorised within a traditional frame in Western art history as ‘Islamic art’. This frame has been replete with colonial boundaries and a matrix of Eurocentric categories which have all but relegated Islamic art to a collection of objects situated within a fixed geography and temporality. However, in more recent years the hyper-globalisation of the contemporary art world and the increased visibility of “Muslimness” post 9/11 has prompted the rupture of the past geographical and colonial confines, accompanied with a movement of art that is emerging from contemporary Muslim communities in the West. By establishing a contemporary historiography of Islamic art in Australia, along with a critical examination of a selection of artists who identify with their Islamic heritage, my thesis aims to elucidate this contemporary movement of art as both a revelation and disruption of Islamic art history. Furthermore, by examining the thread between contemporary Islamic art and the reclamation, renovation, and subversion of tradition by local Muslim artists, an alternative frame of reference is apparent in the practice of contemporary Muslim artists. This encompasses a deliberate shift in focus from the ‘Orientalist object’ to instead foreground the artist and their practice in a postcolonial frame. This thesis reveals a recent development in Islamic art, specifically in Australia, arguing that recognising this shift is vital for both the future history of Islamic art and the discourse of Australia art history.
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ItemCharlotte Posenenske's Off-Avant-Garde( 2023-11)The subject of this thesis is the work of German artist Charlotte Posenenske (1930-1985). Despite the current interest in Posenenske’s art, there have been very few in-depth studies of her practice. This thesis, which conducts an extensive analysis of Posenenske’s artistic output, is the first scholarly account of her work. Posenenske’s work was produced against the backdrop of Cold War West Germany, a country significantly shaped by its rapid post-WWII reconstruction and prosperity resulting from the so-called Economic Miracle (Wirtschaftswunder). Rather than offering a comprehensive study of Posenenske’s entire oeuvre, I focus on a selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures produced between 1956 and 1967. I have chosen to concentrate on works that demonstrate Posenenske’s exploration of themes that were pertinent in the post-WWII reconstruction—namely a new German subjectivity, mass production, seriality, and the relationship between the body and the object. The contention of this thesis is that Posenenske’s practice embodies what I describe as an off-avant-garde. Through this framework it will be shown that Posenenske imbued her works with the formal characteristics of historical-avant-gardism only to undo them. In so doing she neither accepted nor disavowed the historical-avant-gardes. Rather, Posenenske’s off-avant-garde was the result of her testing the utopian potential of avant-gardism in post-WWII West Germany. In characterising Posenenske’s work through this framework, and relying upon archival research, I argue against the common accounts of her work as collectivist and utopian. Although many commentators have described Posenenske’s work as displaying a wholehearted enthusiasm for the post-WWII reconstruction of West Germany, I argue that her practice followed an arc that started with enthusiasm and ended in 1967 with disappointment about the state of West Germany’s reconstruction. This finding offers a nuanced understanding of how Posenenske—and other West German artists—made sense of their environment. Rather than placing Posenenske’s short career on either side of a binary, I demonstrate that it operated in a flux that was proportionate to the rapid changes occurring around her.
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ItemHow to do things with sadness : from ontology to ethics in Derrida(University of Melbourne, 2010)
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ItemWays of listening : dramaturgy as deep mapping in intercultural-Indigenous performance(University of Melbourne, 2010)
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ItemDaryl Lindsay : vision for Australian art(University of Melbourne, 2008)
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ItemThe characterisation of oil paintings in tropical southeast Asia(University of Melbourne, 2008)
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ItemCosmopolitanism and fictionality in eighteenth-century literature : Montesquieu, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Oliver Goldsmith(University of Melbourne, 2007)
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ItemDivide and embody : the moment of putting pen to paper in J.M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello novels(University of Melbourne, 2007)
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ItemA fragile thing : marketing remote area Aboriginal art(University of Melbourne, 2005)This dissertation examines the marketing of Australian Aboriginal art from remote area communities with a particular focus on the new marketing practices that have evolved in response to government policies. I will argue that the pressures to achieve economic sustainability are leading art centres to put greater emphasis on business rather than artistic development. Indigenous communities do not view art centres solely as businesses, but as mechanisms for cross-generational and cross-cultural communication. I will argue that the marketing of their art is a means of communicating their culture to a broader audience as well as creating employment opportunities within their communities. Chapter 1 defines the role of art centres, examines the contribution of art centres and arts advisors in the marketing of Indigenous art, and explains the role of different tiers of government in creating the infrastructure for the Indigenous art market. Chapter 2 argues that the economic rationalist perspective disregards the cultural, social and environmental issues facing Indigenous communities. It traces the shaping of the Indigenous tine art market through government policy and funding programs, Then it examines the impact of government funding arrangements in skewing community priorities through three funding scenarios: the development of a culture centre, withdrawal of government subsidy from an art centre and the exhibition Balgo 4-04. Chapter 3 surveys approaches to the marketing of art that achieve cultural outcomes rather than business results recounting examples of innovative marketing from Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation (WAAC), which were initiated with both business and cultural objectives. Chapter 4 explores the motivations of Indigenous communities in establishing art centres. It traces the history of Turkey Creek and the formation of the Warmun Art Centre and its marketing strategies. Chapter 5 addresses the economic issues faced by art centres in competing with private dealers in the marketplace. This study reveals the uniqueness and fragility of art centres operating in remote areas. I argue that the art centres' existence, and the fundamental role they play in maintaining the integrity of the market place through their marketing strategies, is threatened by the business model. In so doing, I question the current direction of government policy.
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ItemOnline Media Strategies of Egypt’s Al-Azhar to Counter Extremist Rhetoric( 2023-08)The current study explored the ideological identity of a prominent Egyptian religious institution, Al-Azhar, and its capacity to counter extremism. I argued that Al-Azhar’s complex history and its paradoxical relationship with the state have impacted its ideology, leading the Islamic establishment to take a position on the political Islam spectrum. I provided evidence by combining a mixed approach of qualitative methods, using historiography, in-depth interviews and critical discourse analysis. This hybrid approach is used to (1) understand the ideology of Al-Azhar, (2) explore its online strategies/framework to counter extremism, and (3) discuss the reasons behind Al-Azhar’s incapability to renew its ideology and reform its traditional approach of teachings and interpretations of Islamic scriptures.