Affect and Expression in Women's Art in Art Movements of the 1960s and 70s. Through a study of four artists, this project will constitute a major revision of the way art history understands the key art movements of the 1960s and 70s. The study will focus on four women artists?each representing a key movement of the period: Hesse (minimalism), Clark (conceptualism), Cha (conceptualism), Mendieta (land art)?and will demonstrate that their approach to affective expression is the key to understandin ....Affect and Expression in Women's Art in Art Movements of the 1960s and 70s. Through a study of four artists, this project will constitute a major revision of the way art history understands the key art movements of the 1960s and 70s. The study will focus on four women artists?each representing a key movement of the period: Hesse (minimalism), Clark (conceptualism), Cha (conceptualism), Mendieta (land art)?and will demonstrate that their approach to affective expression is the key to understanding their contribution to the development of late-modern art. In the process it will reveal the shortcomings of existing art historical interpretations that see these movements as aiming to eliminate expression and subjectivity.Read moreRead less
Human kind: transforming identity in Australian and British portraits 1700-1900 in the National Gallery of Victoria. The National Gallery of Victoria's outstanding collection of Australian and British portraits, spanning the Enlightenment and the dawn of Federation, say much about this nation's cultural evolution within a global context. This project will produce the first interdisciplinary study of these portraits, enabling their online publication and extensive educational programs.
Immortal Egypt: cultural tradition and transition during the first intermediate period at Meir. The project will gain new knowledge about the development of ancient Egyptian culture by examining well-preserved tombs dating from the Old through to the Middle Kingdom periods at the cemetery of Meir and analysing the ways in which art, architecture, and socio-religious institutions at the site were maintained or altered over a span of 900 years.
Visual cosmopolitanism, national identity and imperialist ambitions in garden spaces. Visual cosmopolitanism is an ideal created through the global movement of art forms. This project will contribute to current debates about the globalisation of art by tracing the concept back to artistic practices and aesthetic theories of the enlightenment through a focus on experience within the eighteenth-century garden.
A comparative historical study of English and French men's self-fashioning, with reference to gender, sexual and national identity, c1740-90. The project analyses the transformation of Anglo-French social attitudes towards elaborate male dress in the period c1740-1790. In so doing, it offers a new explanation for the demise of court dress and the rise of that sober bourgeois style which continues to dominate western male fashion. It will produce the first comprehensive comparative study of two c ....A comparative historical study of English and French men's self-fashioning, with reference to gender, sexual and national identity, c1740-90. The project analyses the transformation of Anglo-French social attitudes towards elaborate male dress in the period c1740-1790. In so doing, it offers a new explanation for the demise of court dress and the rise of that sober bourgeois style which continues to dominate western male fashion. It will produce the first comprehensive comparative study of two courtier figures, the French petit-maitre and the English macaroni, in order to advance the hypothesis that these national masculine identities were interdependent, and played a significant role in the redefinition of modern notions of gender, sexuality, health and consumerism.Read moreRead less
A comparative historical study of English and French men's self-fashioning, with reference to gender, sexual and national identity, c1740-90. The project analyses the transformation of Anglo-French social attitudes towards aristocratic male dress c1740-90. In so doing, it offers a new explanation for the demise of court dress in Enlightenment Europe and the rise of that sober protestant and bourgeois style which now dominates the appearance of western male elites. It will produce the first compr ....A comparative historical study of English and French men's self-fashioning, with reference to gender, sexual and national identity, c1740-90. The project analyses the transformation of Anglo-French social attitudes towards aristocratic male dress c1740-90. In so doing, it offers a new explanation for the demise of court dress in Enlightenment Europe and the rise of that sober protestant and bourgeois style which now dominates the appearance of western male elites. It will produce the first comprehensive comparative study of two courtier figures, the French petit-maitre and the English macaroni, in order to advance the hypothesis that these interdependent national and masculine identities played a significant role in the reformulation of modern notions of gender, sexuality, health and consumerism.Read moreRead less
Understanding Balinese paintings: collections, narrative, aesthetics and society. This project will use digital tools, fieldwork and formal analysis to link a major collection of Balinese paintings held in Australia to collections elsewhere in the world, and to the current practices of Balinese artists. The project increases the capacity of Australia to analyse the cultures of Indonesia and to contribute to regional heritage preservation. The outcomes will provide a basis for future public exhib ....Understanding Balinese paintings: collections, narrative, aesthetics and society. This project will use digital tools, fieldwork and formal analysis to link a major collection of Balinese paintings held in Australia to collections elsewhere in the world, and to the current practices of Balinese artists. The project increases the capacity of Australia to analyse the cultures of Indonesia and to contribute to regional heritage preservation. The outcomes will provide a basis for future public exhibitions of paintings and web-based resources linking Australian public institutions and Balinese communities.Read moreRead less
The Art of AIDS Prevention: Cultural Responses to HIV/AIDS in Australia and the United States. While a number of studies have examined HIV/AIDS as a biological entity, the crucial 'cultural construction' of AIDS, and the effect of this construction on people living with AIDS and the wider public, is poorly understood. This project will assist wider awareness of the fact that public understandings of disease and affected individuals are both culturally mediated and contestable. In examining the i ....The Art of AIDS Prevention: Cultural Responses to HIV/AIDS in Australia and the United States. While a number of studies have examined HIV/AIDS as a biological entity, the crucial 'cultural construction' of AIDS, and the effect of this construction on people living with AIDS and the wider public, is poorly understood. This project will assist wider awareness of the fact that public understandings of disease and affected individuals are both culturally mediated and contestable. In examining the important role that artists played in confronting AIDS, this project will also suggest how similar cultural interventions might be employed during existing and future disease epidemics and other public health threats.Read moreRead less
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
Regenerating the Body: Modern Art, Neo-Darwinism and the Fitness Imperative. Drawing upon histories of art, popular culture, medicine, science and sport, this project proposes that a reconceptualization and reimaging of the human body occurred in Western art and culture, from the end of the nineteenth century, through fitness becoming a Neo-Darwinist imperative. By demonstrating how regeneration facilitated the normalization and 'subjectification? of the body for procreative sexuality, technol ....Regenerating the Body: Modern Art, Neo-Darwinism and the Fitness Imperative. Drawing upon histories of art, popular culture, medicine, science and sport, this project proposes that a reconceptualization and reimaging of the human body occurred in Western art and culture, from the end of the nineteenth century, through fitness becoming a Neo-Darwinist imperative. By demonstrating how regeneration facilitated the normalization and 'subjectification? of the body for procreative sexuality, technologized industry and modern warfare, it substantially revises Michel Foucault's ?biopolitical? theories. In identifying how beauty became inscribed upon the regenerated body and abjection upon the degenerate ?other?, it reveals that the quest for biogenetics emerged long before it became a reality in Nazi Germany.Read moreRead less