Thursday, 20 October 2011
TSI Artists- categories
Some interesting discussion took place in this week's tutorial on the subject of categorisation in Torres Straight Islander art. Of note was that no one really held a black and white view (as it were) on whether categorising their art, and art broadly, was a good thing. The question seems pointless in an artistic sense, because it is already answered sociologically. We naturally categorise things in order to understand them more readily; not to do so would be too cumbersome and far too "PC". If I were to try and explain the function of a new prototype car I had developed to the shareholders who are funding it, I would not begin with Mr. Benz's invention of the combustion engine, I would simply state that it was a new type of CAR, and explain the differences from there. The initial understanding falls into place beautifully and we can all move on. This communication by category is not artistic. It is for the sake of expediency, and artists should not be adverse to labelling themselves for the sake of being expedient. It is only where others wrongly label the artist, where any argument against categorisation has merit.
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I have just read an interesting passage in relation to this post by Hetti Perkins, who in an introduction to the collection "Blackness: Blak City Culture!", has the following to say:
ReplyDelete"Urban-based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have successfully achieved recognition as active and vital participants in the area of contemporary arts. However, this has precipitated debate as to the relevance and appropriateness of stating or acknowledging the Aboriginality of the the artist - implying that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art practise and contemporary art practise can only operate under seperate and distinct criteria. Such constructions contain assimilationist overtones in their implication that contemporary arts practitioners assume a homogeneous, monolithic mass identity." [1]
She goes on to say however, that to not allow Indigenous artists to exhibit together 'ghettoises' urban artists in a slightly racist, and stereotypical way.
Some interesting thoughts on this topic of categorisation I thought.
[1] Williamson, Clare, Hetti Perkins, Destiny Deacon, Cooperative Boomalli Aboriginal Artists, and Art Australian Centre for Contemporary. Blakness: Blak City Culture! : Destiny Deacon, Brook Andrew, Joanne Currie, Rea, Peter Noble, Clinton Petersen. South Yarra, Vic: Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in conjunction with Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, 1994.