Research Projects

Peintpientbat: Indigenous visual art practice from Central Northern Territory

This research will investigate the historical development and current practices of Indigenous visual artists from the central region of the Northern Territory, with the major emphasis on Ngukurr. This region is not generally viewed in isolation. However, its particular contact history of severe social and linguistic disruption give it a distinct character. (Harris 1986). It is of particular interest as an area where the dialogue between traditional society and colonial contact is clearly visible through both art and language.

It will identify significant artists, both well known and emerging, and tease out a variety of influences on their work: including traditional cultural practices, colonial contact histories, key art mediators (ie missionaries, teachers, anthropologists, gallery dealers, art advisors), economic, environmental and political factors. I will also trace movement and family interrelationships between artists in the region and investigate the unique processes of 'kriolisation' in the area. Important to the thesis is the notion of kriol as a metaphor and possible way of reading the visual art from the region. Through investigating the development of particular artists' works, the thesis will provide an overview of visual art from this area, including an analysis of these practices within the socio-political context and a critique of the reception of Aboriginal art from central NT.

The area around Ngukurr has traditionally been seen as part of South Central Arnhem Land. However it is possible that it could be considered as a discrete transitional zone between Arnhem Land and the Central Desert region. The research will consider whether the region can usefully be considered a middle, dialogical space between these two great forces, and, with the influence of Europeans, as a 'Third Space', a space of hybridity which emerges with the collision of cultures in the colonial interface (Bhabba 1990). Certainly this area has all the characteristics of such a space: there is great stylistic variety and diversity in visual art practice, where a host of influences and different traditions coexist in a dynamic and evolving system. It is seemingly the antithesis of the more pure 'classical' styles of Northern Arnhem Land and the Central Desert. Most of the research in this area to date has been carried out from an anthropological rather than an art historical point of reference, except for work on notable artists such as Ginger Riley.