Three major trends are evident in Chinese ink painting: academic reformism, modernism and neo-traditionalism. While reformists are calling for stylistic freedom and a return to humanism, modernists seek the adoption of Western modes of thought and practice to develop and reform Chinese tradition. The new literati painting which has seen a resurgence of innovative theory and technique of an indigenous Chinese painting tradition distinguishes neo-traditionalism. Many scholars believe that developments in Chinese painting represent a decline in the history of Chinese art but, in this authors’ opinion, this has been a period of transformation in aesthetic conception and expression. Chinese ink painting, which is still the dominant stream in twentieth century Chinese art and a continuation of its development, can be seen in the work of many contemporary artists. It is more than likely that the pluralism in contemporary Chinese art discussed in this thesis will continue although the forms it takes will to some extent be determined by political and economic factors. It is unlikely that contemporary Chinese art will totally reject the established cultural and aesthetic systems and establish a new one, based on the Western system. The traditions of Chinese culture remain strong, and it appears much more probable that an internal ‘re-shaping’ of both indigenous and imported elements will result in an artistic tradition that remains distinctively ‘Chinese’ as well as contemporary / Master of Arts (Hons)

This thesis examines the ways in which a small group of young Pākehā women use underwear to construct a range of complex gendered subjectivities. I explore how these subjectivities are influenced by both material and discursive spaces. Three underwear shops in Hamilton, New Zealand - Bendon Lingerie Outlet, Bras N Things and Farmers, and various visual representations depicting contemporary notions of normative femininity, are under investigation Feminist poststructuralist theories and methodologies provide the framework for this research. One focus group and three semi-structured interviews were conducted with young women who purchase and wear underwear. Participant observations of shoppers in Bendon Lingerie Outlet, Hamilton and autobiographical journal entries of my experiences as a retailer and consumer of underwear continued throughout the research. Advertising and promotional material in underwear shops and a DVD of a Victoria's Secret lingerie show are also examined. Three points frame the analysis. First, I argue that underwear consumption spaces are discursively constructed as feminine. The socio-political structures governing these spaces construct particular types of bodies. These bodies are positioned as either 'in' place or 'out' of place. Second, underwear shops can be understood as feminised, young and thin embodied spaces. Bodies that fit this description are hence positioned as 'in' place. However, female bodies that are 'fat' and/or old and male bodies are marginalised within the space and thus positioned as 'out' of place. Third, I consider particular forms of normative femininity by examining the ways in which underwear disciplines and contains the body. Women's underwear moulds and shapes flesh to fit contemporary feminine norms. Examining the specific relationship between the body, underwear and space provides a means to re-theorise geography and makes new ground for understanding how clothed bodies are constituted in and through space.

This is a composite thesis realised in a sound installation titled Blitz: Discursive bombardments in ‘the war on terror’ with a supporting exegesis. The exegesis offers a context for the project in sound art theory and practice, focussing specifically on the history of experimental ‘electrovocal’ expressive forms. It provides an account of the artist’s perspectives on the topic itself: contemporary political discourse on themes of security and danger. The exegesis also defines the scope of the project and documents the creative process undergone to realise its outcome: an installation apparatus capable of folding visitors into a heightened sense of the zeitgeist of early 21st century Australia. The genealogy of the project is described in terms of pivotal decisions and insights, technologies and techniques used, and aesthetic and ethical concerns. The nexus of voice – its material and metaphorical resonances in public discourse – and technologies for recording, manipulating and circulating sound are central to the development of this apparatus. The core body of sounds used in the installation are the voices of politicians, media presenters, members of the public and ‘experts’ and are presented in the form of short sound bites. These were sampled from many hours of recordings of news and current affairs material captured from Australian public broadcasters (radio and television, the ABC and SBS) over the pre-election months of 2004. The voices extol and debate diverse ‘angles’ on the so-called ‘war on terror’ and its physical enactments and outcomes in the war on Iraq. Other sounds offset the voices to enhance a sense of surreal ambience and introduce meanings through metaphor; children’s voices; rhythmically dripping taps; footsteps; ticking clocks; the drone of planes overhead. Various sound processing techniques are applied to samples and a sonic montage iscreated through random juxtapositions of sounds played synchronously from an assemblage of iPods. The figure of the labyrinth is central to the work on many levels, materially and metaphorically. It is used to structure movement through the installation space, a dimly lit ‘black box’ studio of ten by eight metres. Against the traditional practice of silently ‘walking the labyrinth’ as metaphor for a ‘journey within’, the Blitz labyrinth invites walkers to fold themselves into a dynamic field of allusions and aural messages and thereby to warp and shift the emerging play of meanings. The walk wends in and out of proximity to seven iPods set in small portable speakers and dispersed around the floor of the installation space. The ‘pods’ broadcast playlists of sounds bites that play randomly in ‘shuffle’ mode – against one another and against silences – to convey a sense of immersion in the discursive blitz of messages about terrorism and war from the media. The labyrinth is drawn out across the floor in dashed lines – made from small reflective rectangles that light up as visitors move around the space with torches – and is designed to suggest the feel of a road or a landing ground at night. The meandering trajectory of walking bodies around the curves of the labyrinth creates a choreography of audition, of moving and listening strategically to a barrage of sound from ever shifting perspectives. It invites walkers to listen for possibilities that may lie between and beyond the dominant narratives of western political leaders, to locate the gaps and silences. Beyond the pervasive noise of discourse normalised by politicians and the media, what is it that we might otherwise wish to hear and to speak?

By the 1990's many modes of artwork incorporated the constructs of the museum. Art forms including, 'ethnographic art', 'museum interventions', 'museum fictions' and 'artist museums' were considered to be located in similar realms to each other. These investigations into this emerging 'genre' of collection-art have primarily focussed upon the critique of the public museum and its grand-narratives. This thesis will attempt to recognise that the critique of institutional hierarchical systems is now considered integral to much collection art and extends this enquiry to incorporate private collections which examine the narratives of everyday existence. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to material culture and art criticism in examining everyday objects within contemporary collection-art. In this context, this paper argues that: the investigation of collection motivations (fetish, souvenir and system) as metaphor, process and imagery in conjunction with the mimicking of museology methodologies (classification, order and display) is an effective model for interpreting everyday objects within contemporary collection-art. In formulating this argument, this paper examines the ways in which artists emulate museology methodologies in order to convey cultural significance for everyday objects. This is explored in conjunction with the employment of collection motivations by artists as a device to understand elements of human/object relations. In doing so, it contemplates the convergence between the practices of museums and collection-artists. These issues are explored through the visual and analytic investigations of key artist case studies including: Damien Hirst, Sylvie Fleury, Mike Kelley, Christian Boltanski, On Kawara, Luke Roberts, Jason Rhoades, Karsten Bott and Elizabeth Gower. In doing so, this paper argues that the everyday objects of collection-art can represent a broad range of socio/cultural concerns, so delineating a closer relationship between collection-art and material culture.

This thesis is a phenomenology highlighting the phenomenon of declining youth attendance at mainstream churches where traditional church music is used in worship and the emergence of megachurches where young people are attending and contemporary popular styles of music is used in worship. An Australian Broadcasting Authority survey in 1999 revealed that music is a major influence in the lives of youth, assisting in their identity creation, in their making friends, and in relieving their stress. The survey also notes that youth prefer contemporary popular music and, in particular, rock. This is in stark contrast to the traditional music played and sung in mainstream churches, which tends to be neither meaningful nor relevant to youth, largely because they do not identify with it. An increasing proportion of youth are rejecting the mainstream traditional churches such as Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Uniting Church. National Church Life Surveys in Australia show that by 2001, only fourteen percent of church attenders were young adults. Young non-attenders complained they found church services boring and unfulfilling. This declining youth membership does not auger well for the mainstream church’s future. It is clearly evident that, in Australian society a culture gap has emerged between the secular world and the mainstream Christian church. This thesis examines the role of contemporary popular music in attracting young people to church. Although, in comparatively recent times there has been some movement towards contemporizing worship services in mainstream churches, the change has met strong resistance, but that resistance is based on invalid arguments and the mainstream church is yet to respond effectively to the increasing culture gap and growing alienation of the young. Mainstream congregations are not adequately encouraged to participate in singing praise and thanks to God. Although the lyrics of songs that focus on thanks and praise can teach a Christian message, as well as promote an awareness of the presence of God, the importance of this aspect of worship appears to have been overlooked, even though music has always been a part of worship, with multiple biblical scriptures cementing its pivotal role. In 1980 twelve people began Christian City Church (CCC), a new church which was not one of the mainstream churches, with a vision to communicate the Christian message to the whole of Sydney. CCC used contemporary music as a vehicle to make their message relevant. That church has been strikingly successful, and had grown to five thousand members by 2004. This thesis focusses on a case study of the music of CCC to test a hypothesis that the use of contemporary popular styles of music, with a focus on thanks and praise, can play a significant role in attracting young people to join and remain as members, and that such music can be influential in communicating an experiential understanding of the Christian message. The aim of the case study was to discover whether the music was similar in style to young people’s preferred styles of music, whether they actively participated in its performance, whether it communicated to them, whether the lyrics conveyed a Christian message, and finally whether the congregation was both increasing and retaining young people as members. The songs examined in the study revealed that the music and paramusical aspects of the songs were similar to those of contemporary popular songs. The lyrics of the songs included themes of thanks and praise to God, and as such conveyed a Christian message. Thirty percent of the worship service was devoted to music praising God, and forty-nine percent of the church’s 5,000 members in 2004, were under twenty-five years. Further, the congregation participated enthusiastically in singing, an emphasis on belonging to small groups encouraged fellowship, and sermons addressed problems relevant to young people. It is proposed that CCC provides a pattern that mainstream churches could adapt, including the encouragement of congregational singing and worship, creation of effective small groups, relevant preaching, education opportunities, and culturally appropriate music. It is clear that contemporary and culturally appropriate music has played a significant and vital role in CCC’s successful development. To attract and retain youth membership, music needs to be contemporary, and culturally appropriate, thereby filling the gap between the secular world and the church. Contemporary popular music could provide today’s song for tomorrow’s church.

In a time of rapid social change pilgrimages are resurfacing as significant and visible social phenomena. Australia has historically been noted as a very secular society but in recent years there has been some scholarly attention to forms of spirituality outside of the orthodox, Church religion. In matters of national identity and commitment to place it is argued that there could be an upsurge in spirituality, in contrast to the decline of those practising formal religion. In this dissertation it is argued that two journeys undertaken by contemporary Australians can be considered true pilgrimages with spiritual dimensions and are therefore part of a growing spirituality apart from formal Church. A survey of the theological and anthropological literature about pilgrimages allowed the development of an eight-point frame of criteria that could be used as a standard against which an assessment of contemporary journeys could be made. Pilgrimage is a non-local physical journey to a historically and or mythically significant site or shrine that embodies the centre of a person’s most valued ideals. These ideals may or may not be theistic but must be portrayed within the limits of the culture. The shrine casts an image of the culture and has an expert shrine custodian, but has the capacity to absorb a multiplicity of discourses. Pilgrims go to a shrine to experience the place of past events, take home spiritual traces and to model a changed or improved future. In order to apply this frame to two Australian journeys, field trips were made to the plaster image of Mary at Our Lady of Yankalilla Church in South Australia and to Gallipoli in Turkey around the Anzac Day commemorations in 2000. Participant observations and interviews with six key informants, when considered in association with the historical context and media reports, provided ‘thick description’ of the behaviour at the journey destinations and insight into participants’ experiences, motives and understandings. Both journeys, the sacred and ostensibly secular, satisfied the frame of criteria for a pilgrimage. Furthermore they may also exemplify some features that are distinctively Australian, in that in these pilgrimages spontaneity and egalitarianism jostled against bureaucratic structures and national hierarchies.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / It is within the perception, the reality and the problematic of international air travel that this thesis is situated. It argues that a space has been created for international air travel, which is conceptually and physically demarcated from normative social space, the Transit Zone. The thesis examines four sites constituting the Transit Zone using both political and social theory and the analysis of performance and visual artworks that explore, explain or contest aspects of the sites. The first site is concerned with the construction of nation-state territory, population and legal movement. Its physical expression can be found at the border between the Transit Zone and the nation-state. However, its conceptual reach is much more extensive, appearing in immigration policy, national law, international covenants, data-sharing practices and the creation of a space external to, yet within, the nation-state system. This site creates the Transit Zone’s paradoxical position of being excluded from nation-state territory while simultaneously defining it. The second site is premised on the (in)security of civil aviation and explores the striving towards absolute security, and the unachievability of that goal. This is a reflection of the prevalence of (in)security discourses in contemporary society. The third site is created by corporate interest within the airport terminal and the aeroplane. It is the site of logistics and sales, of the passenger functioning both as an object or unit of movement and as a desiring purchasing subject. The fourth site is constructed through the imagination – it is made up of the ideas, cultural dreams and responses that have accreted around the site of the Transit Zone. These intimate and personal responses transform the Transit Zone from a site of function, profit and government control to a vehicle for the construction and realisation of fears, fantasies and rites of passage. This thesis demonstrates that many contemporary issues infuse and surround the Transit Zone. Immigration, national defence, international politics, logistics, social interaction and cultural fantasy all collide there. It explores the complexity of the Transit Zone’s paradoxical collection of sites and systems, which can not be reduced to one single reading. The Transit Zone has evolved, and continues to do so, in response to government and international demands, legal problems, technological advancements, logistical and commercial needs, and social changes. In doing so, its evolution redefines and articulates contemporary concerns. Additionally the thesis reveals an extensive artistic engagement with the Transit Zone and the contemporary concerns it articulates. Art is used as a designated imaginative space that challenges the established reality and the art works discussed change our understanding of the Transit Zone.

This research documentation explores representations of the Holocaust in the visual arts in relation to the post-Holocaust ??ripple effect????the impact of the Holocaust on the world today, in both the wider arena of global political conflicts and in the lives of individuals. In the following chapters, I address the complex ethical and political aspects of representations of the Holocaust in the context of the evolution of Holocaust awareness and memorialisation. I also investigate recent developments in art and theory that challenge prevailing conventions governing Holocaust representation, especially how the relationship between the perceived political exploitation of the Holocaust and the intergenerational effects of Holocaust trauma is addressed. Given these are sensitive and contentious issues I discuss my studio work in terms of how trauma affects the political rather than as an overt polemically/politically motivated art. I examine my attempts to bypass controversy (maintaining respect for victims and survivors), yet maintain engagement with these issues in my art. In doing this I aim to liberate both my art and the viewer from habits of perception in regard to the subject. From this principle I propose a ??strategic?? form of self-censorship that paradoxically gives me the freedom to do this. This strategy enables me to create an art of ambiguity, which exists in an amoral zone. The art evokes reflective thought, uncertainty and ambivalence, where references to the Holocaust or political content are often not explicit, leaving room for lateral and open readings. My work, which incorporates interdisciplinary methods, is often based on photographs from a variety of sources. I also create three dimensional constructions. The sourced images and the constructions are disguised, decontextualised, cropped, erased or digitally altered, and also experiment with optical illusion. Through transformative processes these images are changed into drawings, paintings, photographs. This research documentation acknowledges the gap between the gravitas of the subject with its ethical and geo-political complexities and my idiosyncratic, subjective, introverted approach to making art. I conclude that there is potential in the exploration of an ??anxiety of representation?? in relation to the Holocaust in the contemporary context.

The Screen Test (Americana/Australiana) project is a collection of works that re-makes selected fragments of film spanning cinema history. Through a process of selectively slowing and stilling this form, of what Laura Mulvey calls Delayed Cinema, opens up new possibilities for interpreting and understanding cinema and the photographic. The aesthetic qualities and repetition of the scene or shot are re-created and re-performed, allowing an alternate form of cinema to take place. This alternate cinema takes on the characteristic of the Hollywood screen test and thus we can see each piece as the artist performing the screen test for each film. However, over time the screen test becomes the site for shifting the aesthetic elements within the film and shaping the narrative as a form of aesthetic building block. The viewing of each fragment allows for a new reading of film that suspends or subverts the temporal narrative and allows the contained segment to exist outside of the film opening up the possibility of constructing and emphasizing new iconic images and meanings. Each video piece is supplemented with a photographic still in tableaux form that further explores the aesthetic material of the film or shot raising the aesthetic components of the film ( props, locations etc) to the level of fetishism that may have been missed in the original version. This photographic rendering of the film fragment rethinks the possibilities of photographic tableaux and its relation to the iconic and indexical of photomedia art practice. Similarly, each photographic work is informed by theories of film analysis and psychology that has examined the primacy of the film still with Freudian notions of the primal scene and the uncanny. We are after all bringing to life the graveyard of cinema history. These photographic qualities of the mis en scene and the indexical of metonymy allow a heightened aesthetic experience, which transforms itself into an aberration of the director’s intended meaning, thereby reconstructing this meaning within the context of camp humour and irony. The work also acts as a playful and absurd interpretation of the cult of celebrity within cinema and the art world, which frees up of the interpretation of the film’s meaning and becomes the site for contemporary re-readings of film culture. The juxtaposition of the American Hollywood film and its emphasis on studio lighting, props, character and dialogue against the outdoor location of the Australian films conflates the two cultural imperatives, allowing for the examination of cultural myth through cinema. American cinema is revealed as the dominant culture whose imperialism dogs Australian film and fosters a culture of low self-esteem. Further, the Americana works become the site for cultural examinations of gender, narcissism and war - both real and imagined – and Hollywood is explored in terms of its social imaginings and how they play into real life events. The Australiana component explores the mythology of the Australian landscape with an emphasis on the culture of masculinity and self-destructive violence. However, each work is the result of a conflation of both cultures and other films, or parts of the same film, shifted within the fragment. The production of each photographic and video piece requires the taking on of the role of director, cinematographer, actor and producer. Through the use of interactive technologies such as DVD and the Internet not only am I able to experience a new subjective relationship with the intricacies of cinema but also by recreating these cinematic fragments I am able to bring into being and transform the spectre of cinema into the realm of contemporary art practice.

本文主要的研究對象是民國以來上海地區出現的美術團體 。在研究上， 以時間為縱線的探討，從民國元年到二十六年間，就上海地區中、 西美 術社團的發展，依其成立的先後，做一系統的分析。 而對美術團體實質 的活動內容，則針對各個社團的成立宗旨、基本的藝術主張、 會務進展 和社員的動態，以及社團興衰的歷史過程，作進一步的考察。第一章，就 上海地區書畫家結社活動的探源， 分析上海在一八四三年開埠之後文化 、經濟的發展，對書畫家結社活動的影響， 進而考察書畫會之興起，及 書畫會與社會之互動關係。而第二、三章，分別以中、西美術團體的活動 為主體的探討。首就，團體的脈絡與組成的動機而言， 國畫團體仍是延 續晚清書畫會聯誼的雅集形式；西畫團體則以展覽會為主要的活動，旨在 研究與推廣西洋繪畫。 其次，這些團體性質的判別，國畫團體是以聯誼 、展售為主要的職能， 同時以恢復傳統畫學為其責任；西畫社團，除了 展覽會的舉辦外， 並同時開設函授部，或成立繪畫研究所，招收學生。 另外，在藝術主張方面， 這些團體，普遍都呈現出模糊或不明確的現象 ，國畫社團較為保守， 以保存國粹為目標；而西畫團體，其成員中有許 多是在歐、日留學習畫， 因此表現較為開放的態度，希望透過西畫的學 習，作為日後中國畫學復興的助力。第四章，闡述三十年代新興的美術團 體，即現代美術社團決瀾社， 與左翼美術運動的崛起，如左翼美術家聯 盟的成立。 前者強調「為藝術而藝術」，主張純藝術的追求及創造； 後 者則提倡「藝術為民眾服務」的意識型態，認為藝術不僅是為個人創作的 ，更應該是為社會大眾服務的。 而決瀾社對西方現代美術的介紹，無疑 是受到阻礙，並未引起重視。 但另一方面，左翼美術家聯盟雖在活動推 廣時，雖然受到阻礙， 卻往木刻藝術發展，並且在抗戰時期，獲得相當 大的成果。