Introduction
This post introduces my online dossier of artworks relevant to my practice, as well as a critical annotation that provides context for the entries.
My dossier (in the posts below) consists of 20 entries made for artworks viewed or considered between 26 July and 14 October 2023. The majority of the posts are for works seen in person, to enable me to fully experience the affect of the work as installed (Hickey-Moody 2013, 85-86). The post for each work covers relevant critical frameworks, and references theorists, artists and considerations for my practice.
For convenience, Appendix 1 contains the complete bibliography.
Critical Annotation
As noted for assignment 1 (Cole 2023a), and stated in my initial post of 23 July 2023, the focus of my practice has been on the impact of childhood experiences and vulnerability, drawing on frameworks related to memory, feminism and power dynamics.
However triggered by a combination of increasingly alarming climate change events (Millan 2023; IPCC 2023), and their impact on humanity and the natural world (Sheldrake 2020; Godfrey-Smith 2016), I have now pivoted from this narrow internal focus to an expanded, externalised focus.
As explored in my Fine Art Studio 2 Combined Methodology report (in development as at 20 October 2023), this conceptual seismic shift has realigned my Community of Practice to those artists and theorists who deal with climate change, and by extension, the shape of our future world.
My willingness to embrace the challenge posed has been aided by the element of rare hope in the work of contemporary artists, such as the beguiling coral reef reclamation work Core coralations 2023 of Nicholas Mangan at Melbourne Now (Cole 2023a), or the works I viewed recently at the Wild Hope 2023 exhibition, including Jessie French’s suspended works in algae-based plastic (To sow the wind and reap the whirlwind2023), and Kirsten Haydon’s memorials to lost Antarctic sea ice (Ice Shadow 2021 and Ice Draw 2022).
While my online dossier commences with works viewed opportunistically from regular gallery visits, over the last few months my focus has shifted to artists working in this fraught arena, a form of self-selection driven by my Studio 2 work.
However I was intrigued by the results of analysing my posts, even after allowing for this self-selection. The categories were based around format (for example, sculpture, installation, painting), while the tags reflected critical frameworks including climate change, feminism, colonialism.
While noting that some posts were allocated to multiple categories and tags, this analysis shows my distinct preference for:
Sculpture and installation work, with these examples accounting for almost half of the posts. Such works ranged from the minimalistic Reflection Model (Itsukushima) 2014 to the quasi-scientific Deep Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef 2016 . This preponderance reflects my preference for this format, as shown by images of my three recent works for Studio 2 (Figures 1 to 4)
Work based on the critical framework climate change (50%), especially those incorporating the aesthetics of care (20%)
Work that uses absurdity (25%) or relates to memory (25%)
Work that relates to colonialism or post-colonialism (25%), although this may be incidental. For example I have tagged Clare Humphries’s Perspectus Australis 2023 as having a post-colonial dimension due to its depiction of a 1676 celestial map which placed the Southern Hemisphere upside down.
Surprisingly, given my initial focus at the start of semester, there are only a few works that relate to feminism, however this is likely due to my recent focus on climate change.
Figure 1 . Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of her Entombed in plain sight 2023 project for Studio 2, 2023.
Figure 2 . Photograph (view 1) by Elizabeth Cole of her Carbonised 2023 project for Studio 2, 2023.
Figure 3 . Photograph (view 2) by Elizabeth Cole of her Carbonised 2023 project for Studio 2, 2023
Figure 4 . Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of her Precarious times 2023 project for Studio 2, 2023.
Appendix 1 – Bibliography
(SASi), Seaweed Appreciation Society international. 2023. "Contributors." https://www.seaweedappreciationsociety.com.
Adrienne Dengerink, Chaplin. 2005. Art and Embodiment: Biological and Phenomenological Contributions to Understanding Beauty and the Aesthetic. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library.
Bailey, Michael. 2023. "This theatre show uses playful puppets to send a sombre message." Australian Financial Review, 13 October 2023, 2023. Accessed 13 Ocrober 2023. https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/dimanche-review-clowning-along-with-the-climate-crisis-20231012-p5ebxb?btis.
Bryan, Kenza. 2023. "Tipping point in global fight over seabed mining." Australian Financial Review, 10 July 2023, 2023. Accessed 13 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/tipping-point-in-global-fight-over-seabed-mining-20230710-p5dmz6.
Chandler, Daniel. 2022. Semiotics : the basics. Fourth edition. ed.The Basics Series. New York, New York: Routledge.
Chaplin-Dengerink, Adrienne. 2019. The philosophy of Susanne Langer : embodied meaning in logic, art and feeling. First edition. ed. London ;: Bloomsbury Academic.
Cohen, Margaret, and Killian Quigley. 2019. The Aesthetics of the Undersea. 1st ed.Routledge Environmental Humanities Series. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group.
Cole, Elizabeth. 25 August 2023 2023a. Critical Frameworks A - Annotated bibliography. RMIT University.
---. 22 August 2023 2023b. Hiding in plain sight: Studio 2 Reflective Feedback report. RMIT University.
Dukes, Daniel, Kathryn Abrams, Ralph Adolphs, Mohammed E. Ahmed, Andrew Beatty, Kent C. Berridge, Susan Broomhall, Tobias Brosch, Joseph J. Campos, Zanna Clay, Fabrice Clément, William A. Cunningham, Antonio Damasio, Hanna Damasio, Justin D’Arms, Jane W. Davidson, Beatrice de Gelder, Julien Deonna, Ronnie de Sousa, Paul Ekman, Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Ernst Fehr, Agneta Fischer, Ad Foolen, Ute Frevert, Didier Grandjean, Jonathan Gratch, Leslie Greenberg, Patricia Greenspan, James J. Gross, Eran Halperin, Arvid Kappas, Dacher Keltner, Brian Knutson, David Konstan, Mariska E. Kret, Joseph E. LeDoux, Jennifer S. Lerner, Robert W. Levenson, George Loewenstein, Antony S. R. Manstead, Terry A. Maroney, Agnes Moors, Paula Niedenthal, Brian Parkinson, Ioannis Pavlidis, Catherine Pelachaud, Seth D. Pollak, Gilles Pourtois, Birgitt Roettger-Roessler, James A. Russell, Disa Sauter, Andrea Scarantino, Klaus R. Scherer, Peter Stearns, Jan E. Stets, Christine Tappolet, Fabrice Teroni, Jeanne Tsai, Jonathan Turner, Carien Van Reekum, Patrik Vuilleumier, Tim Wharton, and David Sander. 2021. "The rise of affectivism." Nature human behaviour 5 (7): 816-820. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01130-8.
Emmett, Peter. 1998. Janet Laurence.An Art in Australia book. Sydney, N.S.W: Craftsman House [distributor].
Gabsi, Wafa. 2010. "‘Fiction and Art practice’Interview with Larissa Sansour ‘A Space Exodus.’." Contemporary Practices: Visual Arts from the Middle East 10.
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. 2016. Other minds: the octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness. First edition. ed.Octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness. London: William Collins.
Grosz, Elizabeth. 2005. Time travels : feminism, nature, power.Next wave. Durham: Duke University Press.
---. 2008. Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth.Wellek Library lectures. New York: Columbia University Press.
Head, Lesley. 2016. Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene : Re-Conceptualising Human-nature Relations. London: Taylor & Francis Group.
Hickey-Moody, Anna. 2013. "Chapter 4 Affect as Method: Feelings, Aesthetics ad Affective Pedagogy." In Deleuze and research methodologies edited by Rebecca Coleman and Jessica Ringrose, 79-95. Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, United Kingdom).
Humphries, Dr Clare. 2023. Sea Sings, Lumen & Wings Realm: Jo Darvall, Martin King and Clare Humphries. edited by Print Council of Australia. : Margin Press.
IPCC. 2023. 2023: Summary for Policymakers. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC).
Leach, Neil. 2006. Camouflage. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
MacLachlan, Malcolm. 2004. "Embodiment: Clinical, Critical and Cultural Perspectives on Health and Illness." Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill Education.
Michelson, Annette. 1987. "October : the first decade, 1976-1986." 58-74. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Millan, Laura. 2023. "Why is there an Argentina-sized chunk missing from the Antarctic?" Australian Financial Review, 30 July 2023, 2023. Accessed 30 July 2023, 4 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/why-is-there-an-argentina-sized-chunk-missing-from-the-antarctic-20230730-p5dsd2.
Mitchell, Sue. 1991. "Chemical Explosion at Vic Depot." Australian Financial Review, 22 August 1991, 1991. Accessed 7 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/politics/chemical-explosion-at-vic-depot-19910822-k4ic9.
Nguyen, Chantal. 2023. "Should we laugh in the face of climate catastrophe?" The Age 12 October 2023, 2023. Accessed 13 October 2023. https://amp.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/should-we-laugh-in-the-face-of-climate-catastrophe-20231011-p5ebf9.html.
Ortner, Sherry B. 1972. "Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?" Feminist studies 1 (2): 5-31. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177638.
Ross, Anne, and Joanna Bosse. 2023. Whichway / Anne Ross ; curator, Joanna Bosse. Brighton, Vic: Bayside City Council.
Saines, Chris, Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Don Henry, Alexis Wright, Judy Watson, Bonita Ely, Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Paul Blackmore, Megan Cope, Lola Greeno, and Wukun Wanambi. 2019. Water. South Brisbane, Queensland: Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art.
SFMOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Eadweard Muybridge." Accessed 27 August 2023. https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/eadweard_muybridge/.
Sheldrake, Merlin. 2020. Entangled life : how fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures / Merlin Sheldrake. London: Vintage.
Thompson, Russell Storrer and Beatrice. 2023. Haegue Yang: Changing From From to From Parkes, ACT.: National Gallery of Australia.
Thomson, James. 2023. "Emotional Rio chairman recalls horrors of Juukan." Australian Financial Review, 24 May 2023, 2023. Accessed 7 October 2023. https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/emotional-rio-chair-delivers-home-truths-on-juukan-gorge-anniversary-20230524-p5db0h.
