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2010 CCP Lecture Series
Centre for Contemporary
Photography presents
an annual series of free
public lectures.
No bookings. Seats strictly
limited. Gold coin donations
gratefully accepted.
Performing Colonial Photography
Presented in conjunction with The Australian Centre, The University of Melbourne.
2010
CCP Lecture Series brochure 388
kb
1. Jirra Lulla Harvey
A Minstrel Legacy: Typecasting Indigeneity
2. Wendy Red Star
Crow Indians Past and Present
3.
Tony Birch
'Red is the Colour': the Archive, the Image, the Word, the Ngamajet
4. Dianne Jones
The Girl Next Door: In(digenous) Suburbia
Anne Maxwell
Colonialism and Eugenic Photography
5. Penny Edmonds
The Waitangi Treaty Photographic Tableau and the Idea of the 'Maori Magna Carta'
Jane Lydon
Bullets, Teeth and Photographs
1.
Jirra Lulla Harvey
Wednesday 18 August 6.15pm
A Minstrel Legacy: Typecasting Indigeneity
Jirra Lulla Harvey looks at Bindi Cole's photographic series Not Really Aboriginalin relation to the history of Blackface performance in Australia. Underpinned by the question of light skinned Aboriginal identity, this paper draws parallels between government led assimilation policies and minstrel performance, both of which claim the right to classify another's racial identity.
Jirra Lulla Harvey is an advocate for Indigenous self-representation in the arts and media industries. She focused her studies on representations of ethnicity in popular culture and the creation of racial stereotypes that permeate contemporary Australian life. She has worked in Aboriginal education and youth affairs, while gaining experience as a freelance curator, arts writer and journalist.
2.
Wendy Red Star
Wednesday 25 august 6.15pm
Crow Indians Past and Present
Wendy Red Star grew up on the Crow Indian Reservation in south central Montana, USA. She is half Crow Indian and half Irish American. Red Star's art explores her cultural and ethnic hybridity—the notion of navigation and negotiation between the two worlds she occupies. Working across different media including photography, installation and sculpture, Red Star will discuss her practice.
Wendy Red Star (BFA from Montana State University and MFA in sculpture, UCLA) currently lives in Portland, Oregon where she is an adjunct professor at Portland State University. Exhibitions include Helen E. Copeland Gallery, Bozeman, Montana; the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris; Museum Tower at MOCA, Los Angeles; UCLA New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles; Laura Bartlett Gallery, London; and Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles.
Visit Wendy Red Star's website
Download Wendy Red Star's lecture recording MP3, 30.2MB
3.
Tony Birch
Wednesday 1 September 6.15pm
'Red is the Colour': the Archive, the Image, the Word, the Ngamajet
Over the last three years artist Tom Nicholson and writer Tony Birch have shared their interest in the colonial archive and the act of intervention. Recently they collaborated on the project Camp Pell Lecture for Artspace, Sydney. Tony will discuss this and other projects including Duetto, based in part, on a commemoration and recognition of Indigenous Sovereignty and celebration of the life of William Barak.
Dr Tony Birch is a writer, curator and historian, and teaches in the School of Culture and Communication at The University of Melbourne. Tom Nicholson is a Melbourne-based artist and teaches in the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University.
4. Dianne Jones & Anne Maxwell
Wednesday 8 september 6.15pM
Artist Dianne Jones discusses her performative use of iconic imagery and academic Anne Maxwell discusses the use of photography in eugenicist propaganda. Chaired by Kate Darian-Smith.
Dianne Jones
The Girl Next Door: In(digenous) Suburbia
Dianne Jones foregrounds the homogeneity of dominant visual ideologies, while creating representations that are inclusive of marginalised bodies and voices. Drawing on family experiences and memory, Jones disrupts stereotypical and racist notions of what constitutes 'Indigeneity'.
Nyoongar artist Dianne Jones lives and works in Melbourne. Her studies include Aboriginal Orientation Course at the University of Western Australia and a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Edith Cowan University, Perth. Recent exhibitions include, Gayme, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick; Lookin' Up, Gorman House Arts Centre, Canberra; Half Light: Portraits from Black Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Jones is represented by Niagara Galleries, Melbourne.
Anne Maxwell
Colonialism and Eugenic Photography
This paper examines one of photography's more controversial social applications or performances, its cooption by the eugenics movement, which lasted from 1880 to 1940, when photography was unambiguously thrust into the world of colonial race-based politics.
Dr Anne Maxwell teaches in the School of Culture and Communications at The University of Melbourne. She is the author of Colonial Exhibitions and Photography (Leicester UP, 2000); Picture imperfect Photography and Eugenics 1870-1940 (Sussex Academic Press, 2008); Maoriland Stories by Alfred Grace (Ngaio Press, 2008) and Ethical Evolution: Eugenics and Genetic Engineering in Science Fiction (forthcoming Toronto UP, 2010).
5. Penny Edmonds & Jane Lydon
Wednesday 15 September 6.15pm
In their papers Penny Edmonds and Jane Lydon will address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and rights through colonial photography and performances.
Chaired by Kate Darian-Smith.
Penny Edmonds
The Waitangi Treaty Photographic Tableau and the Idea of the 'Maori Magna Carta'
In 1923 a set of photographic tableaux illustrating key historical moments between settlers and Maori peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand was produced. Penny explores this series, in particular Signing the Waitangi Treaty. In this tableau vivant we see how the Treaty was performed as the 'Maori Magna Carta', portraying the apparent transference of English liberties and rights to Maori peoples.
Dr Penny Edmonds is a historian at The University of Melbourne, with research interests in colonial histories, Australian and Pacific-region contact history, and visual culture. Penny is the author of Urbanizing Frontiers: Indigenous Peoples and Settlers in Nineteenth-Century Pacific Rim Cities (UBC Press, 2010).
Jane Lydon
Bullets, Teeth and Photographs
In 1927 an inquiry into the Forrest River massacre sent shockwaves across Australia. Photographic evidence was tendered to the inquiry: how were these images seen at the time? How should we look at them now? The horrified public preferred to look at more eloquent images of Indigenous suffering. This talk reviews these parallel ways of seeing Aboriginal people and the role of photography in arguing for Indigenous rights.
Dr Jane Lydon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash University. Her books include Eye Contact: Photographing Indigenous Australians (Duke University Press, 2005) and Fantastic Dreaming: The Archaeology of an Aboriginal Mission (Altamira Press, 2009).
Bookings not necessary. Gold coin donations gratefully accepted.
past 2010 lectures
Liz Wells:
Topographic Narratives — on Landscape and Geography
Wedneday 31 March 6pm
Centre for Contemporary Photography in association with the Faculty of Art & Design at Monash University is pleased to announce a lecture by leading UK based academic and curator Liz Wells on the topic of topographic narratives in relation to photography.
The authority of topographic photography derives primarily from the integrity of photographers as researchers exploring land and environment. Reference will be made to work by practitioners from Europe and USA including Olafur Eliasson (Denmark), Doris Frohnapfel (Germany), Mark Klett (USA), Ingrid Pollard (UK) and Jem Southam (UK).
Liz Wells writes and lectures on photographic practices. She is editor of The Photography Reader, 2003 and of Photography: A Critical Introduction, 2009, 4th ed.; also co-editor of Photographies, Routledge Journals. Land Matters: Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity, is due for publication in 2010. Other publications on landscape include Liz Wells, Kate Newton and Catherine Fehily, eds., Shifting Horizons, Women's Landscape Photography Now, 2000. Wells' recent curatorial projects include Uneasy Spaces, 80 Washington Square East Galleries 2006 and Facing East, Contemporary Landscape Photography from Baltic Areas, UK tour 2004 – 2007. She is Professor in Photographic Culture, Faculty of Arts, University of Plymouth, UK, and convenes the research group for Land/Water and the Visual Arts.
Event Horizon Public Program
Wednesday 7 July 2010 6pm
CCP presents an evening of lectures by astrophysicist Professor Jeremy Mould and scientific photographer David Malin as part of the exhibition Event Horizon. These leading authorities discuss the phenomenon of black holes, space travel and the seemingly impossible task of documenting the parameters of our universe.
David Malin is a British-born astronomical photographer who between 1975 and 2001 worked at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Sydney. His training and previous career in chemistry enabled him to pioneer methods—including ‘malinization’—of radically enhancing faint photographic images of distant galaxies and other celestial phenomena, greatly increasing the information obtainable from them. Malin has had a galaxy and a minor planet named after him. Among his many publications are Colours of the Stars (1984, with Paul Murdin) and A View of the Universe (1993).
Download David Malin's lecture recording MP3, 44.1MB
Jeremy Mould gained his PhD from the Australian National University and held postdoctoral positions at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Washington. He joined the Caltech faculty in 1982. He returned to Australia in 1992, where he became Director of Mount Stromlo & Siding Spring Observatories. He was Director of the US National Optical Astronomy Observatories from 2001–2007. He is now Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne School of Physics.
Download Jeremy Mould's lecture recording MP3, 18.2MB
