Full Description
In Remote Avant-Garde Jennifer Loureide Biddle models new and emergent desert Aboriginal aesthetics as an art of survival. Since 2007, Australian government policy has targeted "remote" Australian Aboriginal communities as at crisis level of delinquency and dysfunction. Biddle asks how emergent art responds to national emergency, from the creation of locally hunted grass sculptures to biliterary acrylic witness paintings to stop-motion animation. Following directly from the unprecedented success of the Western Desert art movement, contemporary Aboriginal artists harness traditions of experimentation to revivify at-risk vernacular languages, maintain cultural heritage, and ensure place-based practice of community initiative. Biddle shows how these new art forms demand serious and sustained attention to the dense complexities of sentient perception and the radical inseparability of art from life. Taking shape on frontier boundaries and in zones of intercultural imperative, Remote Avant-Garde presents Aboriginal art "under occupation" in Australia today.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction. The Imperative to Experiment 1
1. Humanitarian Imperialism 21
Part I. Biliteracies
2. Tangentyere Artists 41
3. June Walkutjukurr Richards 77
4. Rhonda Unurupa Dick 91
Part II. Hapticities
5. Tjanpi Desert Weavers 109
6. Warnayaka Art: Yurlpa 139
7. Yarrenyty Arltere Artists 159
Part III. Happenings
8. Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route 181
9. The Warburton Arts Project 197
Epilogue: (Not) a "Lifestyle Choice" 217
Notes 221
Further Resources 233
References 235
Index 257
