This exegesis covers a period of research and art practice spanning from 2004 to 2007. I have combined visual arts with theoretical research practice that considers the notion of Australian colonialism via a post colonial construct. I have questioned how visual arts can convey various conditions relationships between settler and Indigenous cultures and in doing so have drawn on both personal art practice and the works of Australian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. These references demonstrate an ongoing examination of black and white relations portrayed in art, ranging from the drawings of convict artist, Joseph Lycett, through to the post federation stance of Margaret Preston, whose works expressed a renewal of interest in Indigenous culture. In applying a research approach, I have utilised a Narrative Enquiry methodology with a comparative paradigm within a Creative Research framework, which allows for various interpretations of my themes through both text and visuals. These applications also express a personal view that has been formed from family and workplace experiences. These include cultural influences from my settler family history and settler historical events in general juxtaposed with an accumulated knowledge base that has evolved from my personal and professional experience within Indigenous arts and education. I have also cited examples from Australian colonial and postcolonial art and literature that have influenced the development of my visual language. These include applying stylistic approaches that incorporate various artistic aspects of figuration and the Picturesque and literal thematic mode based on satire and social commentary. Overall, my research work also expresses an ongoing and evolving process that has been guided and influenced by current Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian postcolonial critical thinking and arts criticism, assisting within the development of my personal views and philosophies .This process has supported the formation of a belief system that I believe has matured throughout my research and art practices, providing a personal confidence to assert my own analytical stance on colonial history.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/246549 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | West, Sharon Ann, sharon.west@rmit.edu.au |
| Publisher | RMIT University. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.rmit.edu.au/help/disclaimer, Copyright Sharon Ann West |
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