Hybrids, mimics, colonies and collections : a cross-disciplinary art practice research process
This PhD submission primarily consists of my fine art practice as research published and disseminated in a range of exhibition sites and interventions. Full textual and visual documentation is accompanied bya critical, contextual commentary. This research and its manifestations not only test and cross conventional categorisations of fine art but also draw upon sources and processes normally associated with other disciplines. The main project, titled Cuculus Prospectus (2011 onwards), is an innovative combination of archival research and diverse media/practices exploring human/animal metaphors of historic colonialism, including mimicry and hybridity. Cuculus Prospectus, together with related art works/interventions and projects, constitutes a distinctive and novel contribution to knowledge in practice-based fine art research. These are critically engaged with: animal/numan studies in contemporary art practice; historical narratives of colonial human migration; studies of evolutionary and non-evolutionary animal behaviour; and the consequent paradigms of practice (historic and contemporary) that permeate cultural institutions such as museums, collections and archives. The crossdisciplinary nature of my fine art practice employs diverse knowledge resources and utilises unexpected tools of engagement to reveal a sense of the marvellous and new in positing parallels of colonising behaviour between human and non-human species.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations