Curating Cities: the social and ecological potential of public art practice. This project researches the contribution of public art to eco-sustainable development, focusing on world’s best practice and potential benefits to Sydney and cities in general. It seeks to establish how the arts can promote environmentally beneficial behaviour change and the development of green infrastructure.
A new theory of Aboriginal art. The paradigms developed by scholars have a huge impact on the value of art. After the Australian artworld repositioned Aboriginal art from the frame of 'primitive art' to that of contemporary art, the price of and market for Aboriginal art increased enormously. However, Aboriginal art failed to penetrate the international contemporary artworld because the paradigms of contemporary art within which it was framed were outmoded. Through examining the production of Ab ....A new theory of Aboriginal art. The paradigms developed by scholars have a huge impact on the value of art. After the Australian artworld repositioned Aboriginal art from the frame of 'primitive art' to that of contemporary art, the price of and market for Aboriginal art increased enormously. However, Aboriginal art failed to penetrate the international contemporary artworld because the paradigms of contemporary art within which it was framed were outmoded. Through examining the production of Aboriginal art from the perspectives of its producers and recent globalised contemporary art practices, this project aims to develop a new theory of Aboriginal art that is more aligned with the thinking of current curators who set the agenda at the upper end of the market.Read moreRead less
In Public / In Focus: Photography, Testimony and the Public Sphere. Photography plays an important but little understood role in the public sphere. Photographs invite viewers to identify with stories, events and others, and the ease with which photographs circulate in print and online makes them ideal for fostering discourse and debate. However, the increasing focus on testimony and witness in contemporary culture has recently altered the way that photography operates in public and raised some s ....In Public / In Focus: Photography, Testimony and the Public Sphere. Photography plays an important but little understood role in the public sphere. Photographs invite viewers to identify with stories, events and others, and the ease with which photographs circulate in print and online makes them ideal for fostering discourse and debate. However, the increasing focus on testimony and witness in contemporary culture has recently altered the way that photography operates in public and raised some significant problems for photography historians regarding the representation of events, others and the past. This project will respond to these problems, and produce a new understanding of the historical, social, cultural and political links between photography and the public sphere today.Read moreRead less
Women, Feminism and Art in Australia since 1970. The project aims are to investigate the impact of feminism on contemporary Australian art and to critically interpret the history of feminism and its influence on the ways in which Australian society views representations of women across cultural differences. Hundreds of women will have the opportunity to contribute to the project, revealing the roles and interactions between gender, race, class and ethnicity. This process is designed to give voic ....Women, Feminism and Art in Australia since 1970. The project aims are to investigate the impact of feminism on contemporary Australian art and to critically interpret the history of feminism and its influence on the ways in which Australian society views representations of women across cultural differences. Hundreds of women will have the opportunity to contribute to the project, revealing the roles and interactions between gender, race, class and ethnicity. This process is designed to give voice to complex positions, highlighting different interpretations rather than a unified point of view. The project plans to combine the source material collected through the national workshop program with scholarly methodologies to provide a diverse and noisy cultural picture of Australia and its women.Read moreRead less