Steve Dixon
Manchester Metropolitan University
Beyond the Seas: the effects of dislocation on material culture and craft practice
‘Beyond the Seas’ is an on-going practice-led research project, investigating the ways in which cultural and geographical dislocation influences craft practice and the creation of material culture.
The project is an examination of the effects of dislocation on my own craft practice, informed by study of the effects of displacement on the early Australian colonists (as evidenced by historical artefacts) study of the effects of colonisation upon the craft traditions and practices of indigenous Aboriginal cultures, and exploration of the creative and cultural tensions between traditional and contemporary craft practices in Australia.
‘Beyond the Seas’ consists of a twelve-week studio-based research residency at The Jam Factory, Adelaide, Australia (January to April 2006) followed by a twelve-week period of studio-based research in the UK (currently on-going).
A powerpoint illustrated talk will examine the development of a body of new forms, made in response to the project and the Adelaide residency, from source/research material (e.g. convict love tokens and tattoos, death masks and punishment hoods, Aboriginal bush toys, depression era bush furniture and a growing collection of ‘op-shop Australiana’) through drawings and maquettes to the finished works.
It will seek to explain and reflect upon the changes in concept and approach, choices of materials, and uses of narrative, that have emerged as a result of this personal experience of geographical dislocation. Some of these changes in practice are subtle, others more radical, provoking a questioning of identity and artistic ‘territories’.
Background - research question.
What are the effects of dislocation on cultural identity, craft practice and material culture?
‘Beyond the Seas’ addresses this question within the specific context of the Australian colonial experience and its legacy. Australia provides a uniquely appropriate case study, having experienced extremes of cultural displacement and dislocation, both from the perspective of the colonists and settlers, and the indigenous Aboriginal population.
Robert Hughes has eloquently described the psychological effects of such a profound geographical dislocation, within the context of convict transportation to Australia;
‘‘It made sense, of a kind, to assume that the further south one went, the more grotesque life must become. What demonic freaks, what affronts to normality, might the Southern Continent not produce? Within its inscrutable otherness, every fantasy could be contained; it was the geographical unconscious.’’
Examination of associated questions, around issues of dislocation, informs this study:
- What evidence is provided by the historical artefacts and material culture of the colonists and settlers?
- How do these colonial artefacts differ from artefacts produced in the UK?
- Were the reasons for these differences technical? Practical? Social? Political?
- Were the differences radical or subtle? Were new forms of artefact created?
- How were Aboriginal craft traditions dislocated during the colonial period?
- Has globalisation and the communication revolution more recently affected indigenous craft practices?
- To what extent are traditional and contemporary craft practices compatible?
- Is there a cultural/ethnic split between the two, and is this a reflection of more deep-seated cultural tensions?
Primarily, the project examines how this question can be addressed through informed and reflective contemporary craft practice, and explores how these issues can be communicated to new audiences through new models of socially engaged practice.
Context.
The project forms part of a wider research project, the Here and There (HAT) Asia/UK project, an international research exchange project, funded by Arts Council England, The British Council, and national and international partner organisations.
HAT Asia/UK consists of a ‘study group’ of twenty individual research fellows, collectively examining the effects of cultural dislocation on craft practice, through international residential research exchanges. Three further research projects will develop new models of documentation and theorisation.
HAT Asia/UK will operate between the UK, Australia, and the Indian sub-continent, from 2005 to 2007.
