Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Communications and Creative Industries

First Supervisor

Nicola Kaye

Second Supervisor

Dr Dean Chan

Abstract

This dissertation is about addressing social issues relating to colonial encounters from the perspective of a 'White' colonial Australian artist. The discussion seeks to address representational imbalances which occur within image construction as the result of a history of Imperial investment in defining the 'civilised Self against the non-European 'primitive Other' (Said, 1978). The label 'White' is analysed in terms of its contradictions and generalisations, where it is linked to a culturally assumed 'Self' positioning of human centrality and neutrality. This centrality (humanity) was used by Imperialists to justify reasoning behind colonial expansion. The thriving mechanisms of Euro-centric perception are exposed through pictorial arrangement and content within the artworks of contemporary 'White' Australian artists. These artists were chosen as they themselves are also attempting to deconstruct the 'White norm' of systematic marginalisation. Lastly, my own artistic positioning is subject to the same scrutiny as case studies Derek Kreckler and Linda Sproul, in an analysis of chosen representational subject matter- Perth's sculpted colonial landscape - versus the significance of the instrument that was used to capture it- the camera.

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