This project will explore a fusion of Tangata Whenua and Pacific perspectives within a performance installation framework. I intend to juxtapose community narratives within a video art form. I will explore the recording and transmitting of indigenous stories and will create contemporary narratives linking the past to the present. Working within my communities, (Tangata Whenua1, Pacific2, artists from different disciplines, LGBT3, and extensive friends networks), this project will investigate aspects of performance installation using live sets amid recordings of conversations and develop an interviewing practice. The performances are temporary and the devices ad-hoc.

This project will explore a fusion of Tangata Whenua and Pacific perspectives within a performance installation framework. I intend to juxtapose community narratives within a video art form. I will explore the recording and transmitting of indigenous stories and will create contemporary narratives linking the past to the present. Working within my communities, (Tangata Whenua1, Pacific2, artists from different disciplines, LGBT3, and extensive friends networks), this project will investigate aspects of performance installation using live sets amid recordings of conversations and develop an interviewing practice. The performances are temporary and the devices ad-hoc.

RECODING JEWELLERY: identity, body, survival addresses a central problem facing contemporary jewellery practice: through the course of the Contemporary Jewellery Movement, the potential of the jewellery-object to mediate intricate social relationships has become constrained. This is in part due to a singular focus of ideas in the field, and in part due to the developmental trajectory of contemporary jewellery networks. Caught up in the art-craft debate, contemporary jewellery missed the potentials in theory for developing a critical voice. This was not helped by the fact that academic discourse (philosophical, social, sexual, political) has largely neglected the significances of jewellery. The aim in this thesis is to negotiate this mutual neglect - or 'double gap' - by finding connections between theory and jewellery in practice. Jewellery involves complex interactions between makers, objects, wearers and audiences within social networks. Possessing a distinct set of codes enlivened by its relationship to the body, jewellery is a way of thinking and connecting which is strongly embedded in the activities of managing identity that define cultures and epochs. In the process, the instinct for adornment becomes an integral means of survival. This thesis draws on modern and postmodern theory, as well as art and jewellery practices, to examine contemporary shifts in thinking about identity, the body and reproduction. Through the three main chapters of this thesis I endeavour to: (i) provide an informed interpretation of the internal and external pressures that have defined contemporary jewellery practice over time; (ii) introduce relevant examples of my own work, and seek ways to move beyond the limitations of my own practice; and (iii) advocate new ways of thinking about contemporary jewellery that might lead it to a different voice. Reflected in this approach are three fundamental influences to my practice: the Contemporary Jewellery Movement; non-jewellery practices such as art, architecture, street culture, technology and performance; and academic writing across a number of fields. The thesis concludes with a discussion of how these interests came together in a single show, Black Intentions. However, the span of work covered extends through my career in jewellery to provide a basis for future directions.

This is a practice-based research project that explores a new aesthetic perspective and approach in the Western medium of photography, through the application and interpretation of contemporary Chinese master artist Qi Baishi’s philosophical notion of between likeness and unlikeness. Rooted in Chinese ink painting tradition, Qi Baishi [齊白石] (1864-1957) developed and created his theory of achieving likeness in spirit and unlikeness in form as the ultimate goal of painting aesthetics. Adapting Qi’s aesthetics and design approaches to inform the research, and through theoretical explorations and photographic practices, a series of works will be developed that manifests the fusion of Chinese aesthetics with Western photography, to propose a confluent cross-cultural aesthetic thought. The aspiration of drawing upon Qi’s aesthetics at a philosophical level, which is unfamiliar in the context of Western photography, has posed a challenge to the creative exploration. The final outcome is intended to trigger aesthetic resonance in the viewers to further dialectic discussion. The outcome of this research project is presented through a series of photographic works and displayed in a gallery environment.

This project will explore a fusion of Tangata Whenua and Pacific perspectives within a performance installation framework. I intend to juxtapose community narratives within a video art form. I will explore the recording and transmitting of indigenous stories and will create contemporary narratives linking the past to the present. Working within my communities, (Tangata Whenua1, Pacific2, artists from different disciplines, LGBT3, and extensive friends networks), this project will investigate aspects of performance installation using live sets amid recordings of conversations and develop an interviewing practice. The performances are temporary and the devices ad-hoc.

The key concept for this multimedia project was to undertake a voyage in art form which set out to examine issues related to the representation and perception of the ancient Rarotongan god Tangaroa, from traditional context to contemporary reconstruction. The essential aim of this project was to define how far from traditional representations this translation could go without disconnecting it from the cultural identity of Rarotongan traditional art. This project also researched previous historical representations of Tangaroa with the intention of isolating key elements of the traditional artistic structure and revisits them from a contemporary perspective. Using historic references of original artefacts and traditional Cook Islands’ patterns I engaged contemporary practices and materials to produce a body of work which explored my personal perspective on how Tangaroa could be reconstructed in art form. To support my research and studio practice I researched the myth behind Tangaroa and questioned why he has been displaced from Rarotongan traditional theology and reintroduced today as a marketing brand and souvenir icon. The base research for this project considered issues of traditional theology, the impact of Christianity on the ancient gods and Tangaroa’s place in traditional and contemporary context. This project is comprised of 80% studio practice and supported by an exegesis with a value of 20%.

Master of Philosophy / This thesis 'maps' aspects of contemporary Indonesian language poetry and associational life related to that poetry from the Indonesian province of West Java, particularly, but not exclusively, in the period after 1998.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines the coexistence of traumatic themes and Masonic content in the work of contemporary visual artists. The project originated with a discovery of the depiction in my own artwork, produced in the context of a professional art career, of traces of terrifying early initiatory experiences in the context of a Masonic Lodge and using Masonic ritual and regalia. A number of key Masonic authors suggest that the Order draws on a mixed ancestry that contains not only the orderly and sombre rituals based on the practices of the early cathedral builders, but also initiatory rites from various cult groups of the Classical world that involve a course of severe and arduous trials. Recent research by scholars examining cult practices has indicated the existence of Masonic ritual abuse of children, based on the reports of a substantial number of survivors in western countries. Premised on this discovery, the thesis constitutes a feminist and interdisciplinary investigation into the impact of hidden fraternal initiation practices on the production of contemporary art. Examining Masonic themes, symbols and allegories in the context of the contemporary debates about trauma, the thesis initially argues that the concepts used to describe the impact of trauma on the individual psyche may be observed in symbolic form in the rites and practices of the Masonic tradition. This leads into an exploration of the work of five high profile international contemporary artists - the American artists Matthew Barney, Bruce Nauman and Paul McCarthy, an early career painter Mark Ryden, and the Australian artist Ken Unsworth - as case studies, arguing that similar traces of initiatory trauma, along with Masonic references, may be identified in their work. Incorporating insights from trauma theory, scholarly discussions of initiation rites and ritual abuse, combined with knowledge of Masonic practices, this groundbreaking study sheds new light on these artists' work, in particular, on those aspects of the work that have hitherto remained obscure and perplexing for critics. The thesis also includes an examination of my own artwork in this light.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-172).

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-172).