Contemporary Art and Unforgetting in Colonial Landscapes: Islands of Empire

219 Pages·2019·5.584 MB·English

by  Kate McMillan

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
MEMORY STUDIES
Contemporary Art
and Unforgetting in
Colonial Landscapes
Islands of Empire
Kate McMillan
Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
Series Editors
Andrew Hoskins
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, UK
John Sutton
Department of Cognitive Science
Macquarie University
Macquarie, Australia
The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends
that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to
that of memory, from ‘what we know’ to ‘how we remember it’; changes
in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory;
panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination
with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development
of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contrib-
uted to an intensification of public discourses on our past over the last
thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural
shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and for-
get. This groundbreaking new series tackles questions such as: What is
‘memory’ under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the
prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the con-
ceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and
illumination?
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14682
Kate McMillan
Contemporary Art
and Unforgetting
in Colonial
Landscapes
Islands of Empire
Kate McMillan
Culture, Media & Creative Industries
King’s College London
London, UK
Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
ISBN 978-3-030-17289-3 ISBN 978-3-030-17290-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17290-9
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
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Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
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Cover image: Kate McMillan/Getty images
Cover design by eStudioCalamar
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C
ontents
1 Empire of Islands: Contemporary Art and Unforgetting
in Colonial Landscapes 1
Part I Islands
2 Islands of Empire: Geographies of Forgetting 17
3 The Global South: Disappearing Beneath the Equator 31
4 Imaging the Island: Interrogating the Settler Colonial
Experience 77
Part II Art, Memory and Unforgetting
5 Art and Unforgetting: The Role of Art and Memory
in Postcolonial Landscapes 105
6 The Art Object as a Memory Trigger 141
v
vi CoNTENTS
Part III Art Practice as Resistance
7 Art Practice as Resistance/Defying Forgetting 165
8 Listening as Practice: Methodologies in Settler Societies 189
Index 215
L f
ist of igures
Fig. 4.1 Yuki Kihara, After Tsunami Galu Afi, Lalomanu, 2013
(Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries Dunedin,
Aotearoa New Zealand) 80
Fig. 4.2 Kate McMillan, History’s debris (and things you concealed
and I tried to forget), 2006 digital print on polysynthetic
fabric, sound (Courtesy of the author) 82
Fig. 4.3 Lisa Reihana, in Pursuit of Venice (infected), 2015–2017.
Single-channel video, Ultra HD, colour 7.1 sound, 64
minutes (Courtesy of Lisa Reihana and New Zealand
at Venice) 83
Fig. 4.4 Lisa Reihana, in Pursuit of Venice (infected), 2015–2017.
Single-channel video, Ultra HD, colour 7.1 sound, 64
minutes (Courtesy of Lisa Reihana and New Zealand
at Venice) 84
Fig. 4.5 Lisa Reihana, Emissaries, 2015–2017. Installation view, John
Curtin Gallery (2018) featuring Sir Joseph Banks cabinets
and recreation of Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique
(The Savages of the Pacific ocean) (1804–1805) wallpaper
(Courtesy of Lisa Reihana and photograph courtesy
of John Curtin Gallery) 86
Fig. 4.6 Lisa Reihana, in Pursuit of Venice (infected), 2015–2017.
Single-channel video, Ultra HD, colour 7.1 sound, 64
minutes (Courtesy of Lisa Reihana and New Zealand
at Venice) 87
vii
viii LIST oF FIGURES
Fig. 4.7 Lisa Reihana, Emissaries, 2015–2017. Installation view, John
Curtin Gallery (2018). Perspectival Tubes [I, II, III, VI, V +
Yoke Holders], 2017, antique telescopes + digital photograph
+ LED driver. Cooks Folly (36000), 2017, Diasec printed on
Canson Archival Rag. Emissary No. 1 Chief Mourner, 2017,
digital photograph (Courtesy of Lisa Reihana and photograph
courtesy of John Curtin Gallery) 88
Fig. 4.8 Yuki Kihara, First Impressions: Paul Gauguin, 2018 Still;
HD video; 16:9; 13-minute duration. 5-part episodic
talk-show series. Commissioned by the Fine Arts Museums
of San Francisco and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
Copenhagen (Courtesy of Yuki Kihara, the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
Copenhagen and Milford Galleries Dunedin, Aotearoa
New Zealand) 91
Fig. 4.9 Yuki Kihara, After Cyclone Evan, Lelata, 1 of 18 in the
series Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are
We Going? 2013 (Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford
Galleries Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand) 95
Fig. 4.10 Kate McMillan, Islands of Incarceration, 2010. Cockatoo
Island, Biennale of Sydney (Courtesy of the author) 97
Fig. 5.1 Kate McMillan, In the Shadow of the Past, This World Knots
Tight, 2012 (Courtesy of the author and of the photographer,
John Barrett-Lennard) 107
Fig. 5.2 Julie Gough, Observance (film still), 2012 video projection
HDMI, H264, 16:9, colour, sound, 17:09 minutes edited
by Jemma Rea (Courtesy of Julie Gough) 117
Fig. 5.3 Sidney Nolan, Untitled (Calf Carcass in Tree), 1952
archival inkjet print (Courtesy of Sidney Nolan Trust
and Art for Words) 122
Fig. 5.4 Julie Gough, Traveller, 2013 HDMI video projection,
16:9, 8:43 minutes, colour, sound edited by Jemma Rea
(Courtesy of Julie Gough) 131
Fig. 5.5 Julie Gough, The Lost World (part 1), 2013 HDMI video
projection, 16:9, 13 minutes, colour, sound edited
by Jemma Rea (Courtesy of Julie Gough) 134
Fig. 6.1 Julie Gough, Ode, 2014. HDMI video projection, H264,
20,000 kbps, 16:9, sound, colour, 5:00 minutes, edited
by Jemma Rea (Courtesy of Julie Gough) 142
Fig. 6.2 Yhonnie Scarce Thunder, Raining, Poison, 2017. Blown
glass yams, dimensions variable (Courtesy of Yhonnie Scarce) 152
Fig. 6.3 Yhonnie Scarce Thunder, Raining, Poison, 2017. Blown
glass yams, dimensions variable (Courtesy of Yhonnie Scarce) 154
LIST oF FIGURES ix
Fig. 6.4 Yhonnie Scarce, The Silence of Others, 2014. Blown glass,
archival photographs dimensions variable (Courtesy of
Yhonnie Scarce) 156
Fig. 6.5 Yhonnie Scarce, The Silence of Others, 2014. Blown glass,
archival photographs dimensions variable (Courtesy
of Yhonnie Scarce) 157
Fig. 6.6 Yhonnie Scarce, Breakaway Blue Danube series, 2015.
Blown glass 60 25 25 cm (approx.) each, unique
× ×
works (Courtesy of Yhonnie Scarce) 159
Fig. 7.1 Karla Dickens, Looking at You VII, 2017. Inkjet Print,
100 100 cm (Photograph courtesy of Karla Dickens
×
and Andrew Baker, Art Dealer, Brisbane) 168
Fig. 7.2 Photograph of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam
and Vincent Lingiari by Mervyn Bishop (Courtesy
of Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,
Commonwealth of Australia) 172
Fig. 7.3 Petitions of the Aboriginal people of Yirrkala 14 August
and 28 August 1963, Parliament House, Canberra
(Photograph courtesy of House of Representatives,
Commonwealth Parliament of Australia) 173
Fig. 7.4 Richard Bell, Embassy, 2013–present, at the Institute
of Modern Art, Brisbane, September 2016 (Image courtesy
of the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane) 176
Fig. 7.5 Karla Dickens, Assimilated Warriors, 2014 (Photograph
courtesy of Karla Dickens and Andrew Baker, Art Dealer,
Brisbane) 180
Fig. 7.6 Karla Dickens, Guardians, 2014 (Photograph courtesy
of Karla Dickens and Andrew Baker, Art Dealer, Brisbane) 185
Fig. 8.1 Kate McMillan, lost, 2008 John Curtin Gallery, digital print
on polysynthetic fabric, sound (Courtesy of the author) 195
Fig. 8.2 Kate McMillan (detail) Islands of Incarceration, 2010
Biennale of Sydney, digital print on polysynthetic fabric,
sound (Courtesy of the author) 199
Fig. 8.3 Kate McMillan (film still) Instructions for another future
(listening with my feet), 2018 (Courtesy of the author) 203
Fig. 8.4 Kate McMillan (film still) Instructions for another future
(listening with my feet), 2018 (Courtesy of the author) 204
Fig. 8.5 Kate McMillan (installation view) Instructions for another
future (listening with my feet), 2018 (Courtesy of the author) 205
Fig. 8.6 Megan Cope, Untitled (Old Kahibah), 2018 Interactive
sound sculpture (Courtesy of Megan Cope) 208