Friday, 13 August 2021
12:00-3:00pm (Sydney AEST)
Online | You will receive a Zoom link upon registration.
Power Institute Event
A great noise can be heard coming from Indigenous voices. Despite more than 200 years of settler-colonial efforts to silence Indigenous history, art discourse in Australia and globally is today being electrified and transformed by a new cohort of powerful Indigenous writers. At the same time, Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars are producing ground-breaking new research into Indigenous art.
This symposium will celebrate this moment, drawing together the winners of two prizes administered by the Power Institute between 2017 to 2019 to critically reflect on the past, present and future of Indigenous art writing and research
Moderated by Stephen Gilchrist and Clothilde Bullen, the symposium will feature the Winners of the Power Publications Dissertation Prize for Indigenous Art Research, Catherine Massola, Mathieu Gallois and Jonathan Jones, and the winners of the Power Publications Award for Indigenous Art Writing, Kimberley Moulton, Djon Mundine OAM and Cara Pinchbeck.
Program
12:00-1:00pm | Indigenous Art Research: Respect and Relation
Speakers: Catherine Massola, Mathieu Gallois & Jonathan Jones.
Moderated by Stephen Gilchrist.
The Euro-centric discipline of art history has long laid a claim on Indigenous art, yet only recently has it begun to recognise the Indigenous modes of knowledge and sovereignty that this art attests to.
Drawing on their own research experiences, the panellists here will reflect on the disruptive potentials of research on Indigenous art. How can Indigenous archives, perspectives and methodologies destabilise art history’s western bias? What research practices and protocols are necessary for such work? How can institutions and researchers work better to accommodate these needs?
2:00-3:00pm | Indigenous Art Writing: Writing Art, Righting Culture
Speakers: Djon Mundine OAM, Cara Pinchbeck & Kimberley Moulton.
Moderated by Clothilde Bullen.
We need to develop a language through which we can critique our own people … You just can’t start hammering away with broad swords independently; there has to be a methodology to it.
-Vernon Ah Kee
The arts landscape is now shaped by a significant number of Indigenous artists, yet many have publicly decried/identified the lack of Indigenous art writing. Few platforms exist for Indigenous critical writing in Australian and international publications. At the same time, existing Indigenous art writing is often interpreted as being either too uncritical or too dependent on the legacy of the west.
This panel will discuss the state of Indigenous critical writing in Australia today. It will focus on the challenges and achievements of Indigenous scholars and critics, and the ongoing elaboration of a mode of critical writing that centres Indigenous philosophies, protocols and methodologies.
For more information on this and other events that are part of the Power Institute Linework: Lines, Lineages and Networks in Indigenous Art visit the website here.
