A Baroque Archbishop in colonial Australia: James Goold (1812-1886). This project aims to investigate the cultural vision of the first Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, James Goold (1812-1886), whose architectural patronage changed Melbourne. An Irishman educated in Italy, Goold was a passionate collector and missionary bishop. He imported a library and late Italian Baroque paintings to convey the intensity of European religious experience. When Goold was appointed to Melbourne, it was a provinc ....A Baroque Archbishop in colonial Australia: James Goold (1812-1886). This project aims to investigate the cultural vision of the first Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, James Goold (1812-1886), whose architectural patronage changed Melbourne. An Irishman educated in Italy, Goold was a passionate collector and missionary bishop. He imported a library and late Italian Baroque paintings to convey the intensity of European religious experience. When Goold was appointed to Melbourne, it was a provincial town, but the discovery of gold and the commissioning of St Patrick's Cathedral made Melbourne an international metropolis. The project will examine Goold’s collection and communicate the results through an exhibition and conference. The research may change our understanding of the narratives of Colonial Australia.Read moreRead less
Aesthetic Strategies in Neo-Conceptual Art, 1980s-1990s. The decline of formalist aesthetics figured prominently in Neo-Conceptual art and postmodern theory of the 1980s. In the 1990s, this trend began to reverse, and revisionist aesthetic theory re-emerged as a salient force in contemporary art scholarship. Using the perspective of revisionist aesthetic theory, this study will show evidence of aesthetic strategies in Neo-Conceptual art that have been neglected in post modern, anti-aesthetic int ....Aesthetic Strategies in Neo-Conceptual Art, 1980s-1990s. The decline of formalist aesthetics figured prominently in Neo-Conceptual art and postmodern theory of the 1980s. In the 1990s, this trend began to reverse, and revisionist aesthetic theory re-emerged as a salient force in contemporary art scholarship. Using the perspective of revisionist aesthetic theory, this study will show evidence of aesthetic strategies in Neo-Conceptual art that have been neglected in post modern, anti-aesthetic interpretations. As the first systematic analysis of how aesthetic and conceptual operations interact in Neo-Conceptual art, the study will change how conceptualist art is understood within both post modern art discourse and revisionist aesthetic theory.Read moreRead less
Ethical Globalism: Changing Strategies of Political Critique and Intervention in Art and Curatorial Practice after 1989. This project identifies and analyses changing strategies of political critique and intervention in the international artworld over the last fifteen years. The first comprehensive study of the impact of globalisation on both art making and international survey exhibitions, it identifies new forms of "transnational" art and curatorial practice that engage affective techniques to ....Ethical Globalism: Changing Strategies of Political Critique and Intervention in Art and Curatorial Practice after 1989. This project identifies and analyses changing strategies of political critique and intervention in the international artworld over the last fifteen years. The first comprehensive study of the impact of globalisation on both art making and international survey exhibitions, it identifies new forms of "transnational" art and curatorial practice that engage affective techniques to achieve political effects. By drawing on theories of globalisation and developing an analysis of affectivity in art, it demonstrates the distinctive contribution of visual imagery to an understanding of issues such as racism, economic globalisation, violence and conflict, refugees and displacement.
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Eurasian exchange and artistic transformation in art. This project aims to bring European and Chinese art history into dialogue. It explores the early Italian Renaissance in the larger geopolitical context of Mongol Eurasia and the Yuan Empire, to address the questions of influence, contact, and exchange. In reframing the development of early European art as a fundamentally cross-cultural phenomenon, this project aims to offer a better understanding of the roots of our own global visual culture. ....Eurasian exchange and artistic transformation in art. This project aims to bring European and Chinese art history into dialogue. It explores the early Italian Renaissance in the larger geopolitical context of Mongol Eurasia and the Yuan Empire, to address the questions of influence, contact, and exchange. In reframing the development of early European art as a fundamentally cross-cultural phenomenon, this project aims to offer a better understanding of the roots of our own global visual culture. The project will benefit and enrich the study of cross-cultural contact and exchange in art history as a larger field, leading to the re-examination of art in the Australasian region.Read moreRead less
Outsider artists and the reformulation of Australian art. This project aims to produce an understanding of outsider artists, their lives, their histories, and the socio-historic context in which they made their work. “Outsider artists” includes artists experiencing incarceration, disability, mental illness and other forms of marginalisation. Integration of their work will lead to a deeper understanding of mainstream art in Australia to paint a richer, more complex picture of the history of Aust ....Outsider artists and the reformulation of Australian art. This project aims to produce an understanding of outsider artists, their lives, their histories, and the socio-historic context in which they made their work. “Outsider artists” includes artists experiencing incarceration, disability, mental illness and other forms of marginalisation. Integration of their work will lead to a deeper understanding of mainstream art in Australia to paint a richer, more complex picture of the history of Australian art. The project will alter the perspective of arts policy and agencies, and of Australian artists themselves.Read moreRead less
Turbo-folk and the development of nationalist cultures in the age of globalisation. This project analyses musical style of turbo folk as a cultural form of reconciliation between ethnic groups of ex-Yugoslavia. It determines whether the cultural expression of turbo-folk can bridge ethnic rivalries through kitsch music and culture.
Shaping Indonesian Contemporary Art: the role of institutions. Southeast Asia is a new international focus of the art world. In the absence of the kinds of public grants programs and arts institutions that support contemporary art in the West, what are the major structures within Indonesia that shape the choices of artists, support their work economically, and determine what is presented to the world as “contemporary Indonesian art”? By examining the roles of major art teaching institutions (in ....Shaping Indonesian Contemporary Art: the role of institutions. Southeast Asia is a new international focus of the art world. In the absence of the kinds of public grants programs and arts institutions that support contemporary art in the West, what are the major structures within Indonesia that shape the choices of artists, support their work economically, and determine what is presented to the world as “contemporary Indonesian art”? By examining the roles of major art teaching institutions (in Bandung, Yogyakarta and Jakarta); art criticism and its vehicles; exhibitions; museums and private collections; art auctions; and artists' collectives, this project looks at Indonesian art as the product of tension between commodity forms and the creative desires of artists to participate in global contemporary art.Read moreRead less
Mobilising remote Aboriginal art centre records for art history. This project will use the archives of remote Aboriginal art centres to promote Aboriginal artists. For a long time their work has been thought of overseas as primitive, or of ethnographic interest. By examining the innovations of the work of Aboriginal artists, this project will demonstrate that these are contemporary artists of global quality.
The art of pastoralism in Australia. This project aims to study art made on sheep and cattle station by Aboriginal labourers from the 1880s to the early 1970s, in regions from South-West Australia to Northern Queensland. Australia is said to have been founded 'on the sheep's back', but the experience of Aboriginal labour in Australian pastoralism is little documented. The project will combine the methods of art and labour histories to contextualise carved stock whip handles, early drawings of ho ....The art of pastoralism in Australia. This project aims to study art made on sheep and cattle station by Aboriginal labourers from the 1880s to the early 1970s, in regions from South-West Australia to Northern Queensland. Australia is said to have been founded 'on the sheep's back', but the experience of Aboriginal labour in Australian pastoralism is little documented. The project will combine the methods of art and labour histories to contextualise carved stock whip handles, early drawings of horses, rock engravings, watercolour paintings and branded shields. The project outcomes will be a reconstruction of Aboriginal experiences of pastoralism in Australia to create a more nuanced history of Aboriginal art before 1970, as well as the history of Australian pastoral industries.Read moreRead less
The Reception of Aboriginal Art in the Twentieth Century. The investigation will analyse:
* the reception of Aboriginal art during the twentieth century, and will demonstrate the extent of national investment in this reception;
* the subtle and often ambivalent relationship between the disciplines of anthropology and art (including art historians, artists or curators) in the reception of Aboriginal art, as well as being alert to other factors (eg Aboriginal activism and political processes);
....The Reception of Aboriginal Art in the Twentieth Century. The investigation will analyse:
* the reception of Aboriginal art during the twentieth century, and will demonstrate the extent of national investment in this reception;
* the subtle and often ambivalent relationship between the disciplines of anthropology and art (including art historians, artists or curators) in the reception of Aboriginal art, as well as being alert to other factors (eg Aboriginal activism and political processes);
* the historical importance of discourses of identity and nationhood in the reception of Aboriginal art;
* the possibilities for re-thinking the received histories of Australian art in light of shifts in the reception of Aboriginal art.
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