This Master's research project begins from the question: is it possible that the phenomenon of the contemporary corporate-controlled urban environment- as epitomised by the enclosed shopping mall and highrise office block (protected by high-tech surveillance) paradoxically is giving rise to the development of an art practice which represents a new type of spirituality-one which is secular, complex and inclusive rather than religious and reductive? My thesis investigates this question through drawing upon writings by relevant theorists and critics; through a comparative examination of selected works by a number of notable, new mid-career and emerging international and Australian photo media artists and through my self-reflective art practice. In support of my thesis I particularly examine a number of photographic works which seek to reflect both the meditative and the anxious moments which characterise the way we experience everyday reality within our globalised consumer culture. These images are not traditionally religious in any sense but rather reflect the tension between materialism and a desire to escape this through negation of consumerism and corporate image marketing. The kind of images this contradictory response gives rise to I believe can be seen to reflect a 'temporary' or provisional sense of the sublime which transcends- or transforms- the banal and the ordinary in the presented reality. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267580 |
| Creators | Southcott, Beverley. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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