Flesh + blood : appropriation and the critique of Australian colonial history in recent art practice

Abstract

In the final two decades of the twentieth century Australian society was preoccupied with its own history. So ubiquitous was this interest, that bookshops were crammed with popular histories and historical fictions, TV networks aired historical re-enactments and devoted whole series to its exploration and re-creation. In part, this increased awareness of history was stimulated by the 200-year anniversary of white settlement simultaneously celebrated by many non-Indigenous Australians and condemned by Indigenous protestors. Throughout the 1990s the debate over historical fact and its place within society- or the 'history wars' - took centre stage moving beyond academic circles and into political and public discourse. At the heart of this debate was what Bain Attwood called the 'new history', which incorporated the hitherto absent perspectives of Indigenous Australians. This new version of history examined discrepancies between dominant settler accounts of historical events and those provided by Indigenous people, often in the form of oral testimony. A more vocal Indigenous population also forced these new perspectives on Australian history into being, as increased calls for land rights recognition and social justice became prominent. The debate was so prominent that it permeated many areas of Australian society, the visual arts provides one such example. This thesis is concerned with how the popularisation of history was contended in the visual arts. I argue that Australian artists have used appropriation as an effective means of engaging in a discourse on colonialism; of communicating with the past, and of ensuring that that past remained a highly visible concern of the present Through its reliance on existing images, appropriation enables artists to condense the space between the quoted image and their new work. It therefore demands that the quoted image be seen as a concern of the present. This strategy was implemented by a significant number of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian practitioners during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Moreover, it provides an important point of intersection between the artistic practice of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. Rather than seeking to document the history of appropriation in Australia, this thesis is concerned with highlighting how appropriation has become the basis of a critical commentary on historical narratives of colonialism. Show more