|
January 10, 2012
In Statements Les Walkling writes about the dominant movements in contemporary art in the last couple of decades and then raises some questions about contemporary art practice now. He says:
I was born into a culture where modernism and formalism were tied to the universal claims implied in aesthetic judgements, where works of art were considered the embodiment of aesthetics, and presented as signs of social distinction and superior taste. Today we understand such claims as an abuse of Western power prevailing in the name of a universal humanity that glosses over local difference, contradiction and conflict. If the reaction of the 1980s was the embodiment of the anti-aesthetic, and the 1990s a return to representation, then the first decade of the 21st century has questioned our allegiance to the past and responsibility in the present.
"..the first decade of the 21st century has questioned our allegiance to the past and responsibility in the present" is an interesting idea. How are photographers questioning their allegiance to the past? Or questioned their responsibility in the present? How would this relate to the shift to landscape?
Gary Sauer-Thompson, sand + rocks, Petrel Cove, Victor Harbor, 2011
Walking comments that his perspective is one of hindsight: what can we make of art practice in the first decade of the 21st century? His answer is that as contemporary artists we need to find ways to embed an ethical practice deep in our work.
This touches on my work is about the and I'm trying to write about what I'm doing with this work. The past context in Australia that I have constructed and in which locate my work within has been pulled together from the following stands:
(1) the issues of the landscape raised at the Melbourne Festival of Ideas 2011.
(2) the empty space within settler capitalism mentioned here
(3) the StormyWeather exhibition at the Ian Potter Gallery in 2010.
(4) the Photography and Place exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2010
(5) Helen Ennis text Photography and Australia, which I've referred to here and here.
What I've inferred from these threads is that the landscape embodies our history, and so being in a landscape is also being in our history and in a place. It is part of our identity as Australians.
So the question raised by Walking becomes How would contemporary artists find ways to embed an ethical practice deep in our work with respect to the landscape. Maybe the pathway lies in Walking's reflections with respect to his involvement in the Pilbara project.
|
