Seminar: Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network 20 March 2024
Ed Hanfling
Otago Harbour, 1978, an “intimate map”
by Joanna Margaret Paul
R00m F209 Puna Kawa, F Block
Otago Polytechnic, Forth Street
Dunedin
Wednesday 20 March 5:30 pm
Joanna Margaret Paul, Otago Harbour, 1978.
Synthetic polymer paint and collage on paper, 535 x 740 mm.
Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago, acc. no. 78/205.
Otago Harbour is a picture in the Hocken Collections made by Joanna Margaret Paul in 1978. It is, in large part, a lively acrylic-painted and pencil-drawn view, or views, of Dunedin from the top of Southern Cemetery, Mornington, with collage additions – notably, a cropped reproduction of Johannes Vermeer’s Milkmaid (c1660), a scrap of still life drawing and a carefully sliced aerial photograph of the part of Dunedin represented in the painted view. In combining different modes of representation, Otago Harbour has much in common with a series of works Paul called “Intimate Maps.” Paul draws attention to the subjective or contingent act of representing place, rather than place as an objective fact, and exhibits a curiously contemporary sense of intimacy with, or embeddedness in, her environment. This seminar presents a detailed analysis of a complex picture, considering its significance in the context of other bodies of work by Paul (including her photographs and films) and New Zealand art history.
Ed Hanfling holds the position of Lecturer in Art History and Theory at Dunedin School of Art. He writes regularly as a critic for Art New Zealand, and has published journal articles and books on such topics and artists as modernism in New Zealand art, values and judgements, Morris Louis, Milan Mrkusich and Ian Scott. His recent publications include 250 Years of New Zealand Painting (Bateman 2021) as co-author, and as co-editor, a special issue of the Journal of New Zealand Studies, “Art and Aotearoa New Zealand: Cultures, Controversies and Histories,” forthcoming December 2024. He currently serves as co-editor of Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue.
Research Seminar: Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network 18 October 2023
Research Seminar: Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network September 20 2023
Colonial panorama to digital reality:
A Practice-based analysis of nineteenth century and contemporary
immersive arts
Philip Madill, Auckland University of Technology
Wednesday 20 September
Room F209, F Block, Otago Polytechnic, Forth Street, Dunedin: 5 – 7 pm
Philip Madill, Displacement of Accent, graphite on paper, 2023
This seminar will explore, through practice-based research, the evolution from pre-cinema to contemporary mixed-reality entertainment. Mixed reality in this context refers to the coexistence of overlapping virtual and physical spaces achieved by creating and experiencing immersive environments. It will also cover the historical role pre-cinema played, as a form of instructive entertainment, in the promotion and colonisation of New Zealand during the Nineteenth Century. The artistic phenomenon not only served to inform prospective immigrants but propagate ideas of ‘otherness’ through the selective use of imagery and the layout of the exhibition spaces. The discussion will conclude with an analysis of contemporary works by Janet Cardiff, William Kentridge, and Victor Burgin and their use of digital animation to explore the historical impact of pre-cinema entertainment.
Philip Madill is a Dunedin-based artist whose practice explores the historical relationship between photography and drawing. In 2014, he completed a master’s degree from the Dunedin School of Art and holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Otago. Madill is also working towards a Doctor of Philosophy in Art and Design at the Auckland University of Technology.
Dunedin School of Art and University of Otago (Languages and Cultures)
Research Seminar: Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network July 19 2023
Research Seminar: Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network July 19, 2023
Room F209, F Block, Otago Polytechnic, Forth Street, Dunedin: 5 – 7 pm
Visual diffusion and spiritualist practice: a research project on three spiritualists in Aotearoa New Zealand. Minnie Chapman (1856-1949) Sophia Garland Allan (1867-1959) Berta Sinclair Burns (1893-1972)
Joanna Osborne
Image credit: New Zealand Truth, 8 May 1930
With an emphasis on the joys and pitfalls of primary research, Osborne shares some of her findings on the practice of ‘spirit drawing’ in early 20th Century Aotearoa New Zealand. Within a broader scope of new religious movements, histories of feminism and the arts, emerge questions that consider the international diffusion, material expression and interpretive complexities of this art as spiritual practice.
Joanna Osborne is an independent researcher in art history with interests in studies of religion and spirituality. She has a PhD from the University of Otago, was the Dunedin Public Art Gallery 2020 Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Curatorial Intern and has published on the work of Allie Eagle (1949-2022) and Joanna Margaret Paul (1945-2003). She currently works as an academic literacies tutor and quality assurance specialist for an international student support company.
For further information email: visual-studies@otago.ac.nz
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Special Issue of the Journal of New Zealand Studies
Art and Aotearoa | New Zealand:
Cultures, Controversies and Histories
Edited by
Edward Hanfling, Hilary Radner, and Mark Stocker
This proposed special issue is an expression of our desire to provide a forum for scholars focusing on New Zealand art history, while highlighting the importance of their research to our understanding of history and culture more generally.
Culture, and the ideas and attitudes that it generates and supports, form a complex ecosystem in which the arts play a critical role. Our topic “Art and Aotearoa | New Zealand: Cultures, Controversies and Histories” acknowledges these complexities, asking prospective authors to focus on moments of difficulty and disagreement in order to tease out the stakes in the ever-evolving conversations about art over time––as well as the impact of these conversations on the directions that artists have, or have not, taken.
We invite submissions from scholars engaged in research on New Zealand art, including the wide range of forms and media often marginalised within existing histories. The final output will be a scholarly article on New Zealand art history of 5,000–8,000 words. In the first instance, we ask that interested authors submit an abstract on their proposed topic of 200–300 words for review by the editorial board (blind) with regard to the scope and coherence of the proposed issue. Abstracts are due 14 July, Friday 5pm at visual-studies@otago.ac.nz. [See further details below.]
Abstracts will be accepted provisionally, being subject to a further double-blind review per JNZS practices by two referees once the full article is completed. The completed article (5,000–8,000 words) is due 15 December 2023. Notifications will be sent to authors by 11 August 2023 (abstract), by 28 February 2024 (article). Publication is scheduled for December 2024.
Guidelines for Abstract Submission: Two Pages
- Page #1–information page: the title of the proposed article, name of the author, institutional affiliation, position (as appropriate), and contact information at the top of the page, left justified.
- Page #2–abstract (200–300 words, excluding title and bibliographic information): the title of the proposed article, a description of the proposed topic, and a sentence or two indicating how the topic will intersect with the special issue’s stated focus.
- Format: An attached two-page Word document (200–300 words, excluding bibliographic information, title, contact information, etc.) sent via email, double-spaced, in Times New Roman or similar font.
- Submission: via email to visual-studies@otago.ac.nz by 14 July 2023.
FOR PDF OF CALL FOR ABSTRACTS, CLICK HERE.
Publications by Network Members: July 2022–June 2023
Fox, Alistair. Melodrama, Masculinity and International Art Cinema. London/New York: Anthem Press, 2022. [236 pages]
Fox, Alistair. “‘They Came to Me in the Night’: A Midnight Sanctuary by the Torchlight of Memory.” In Wesley John Fourie: They Came to Me in the Night, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Wesley John Fourie: They Came to Me in the Night,” 27 August–24 September 2022, RDS Gallery, Dunedin.
Freschi, Federico. “Editorial: ‘multi.’” In Junctures 22 (2022): 6-9. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9515-3303
Freschi, Federico. “Not Just Another Travelogue: Silence, Nostalgia and Pathos in Rachel Hope Allan’s Photographs of Japan.” In Rachel Hope Allan: Not Just Another Shinjuku Love Hotel, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, pp. 5–10. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Not just Another Shinjuku Love Hotel,” 13 May-18 June 2022, RDS Gallery, Dunedin.
Freschi, Federico. “Between Palimpsest and Pentimento: Abstraction and Painterly Process in Michael Greaves’s ‘The Promise and the Fall.’” In The Promise and the Fall, edited by Michael Greaves, pp. 5–7. Published on the occasion of the exhibition The Promise and the Fall, May 2022, Olga Gallery. Dunedin: Otago Polytechnic, 2022.
Hanfling, Edward. Review of Robert P. West, “Exact Air.” Art New Zealand 186 (Winter 2023): 55.
Hanfling, Edward. Review of Kirsten Carlin, “Yellow Ground.” Art New Zealand 184 (Summer 2022): 58.
Hanfling, Edward. Review of Deborah Rundle, “Tomorrow Is Today Now.” Art New Zealand 183 (Spring 2022): 65.
Hanfling, Edward. “Behind the Fortress Walls: A Conversation with Grahame Sydney.” Art New Zealand 182 (Winter 2022): 52–61.
Hanfling, Edward. Review of Felix Harris, “Magical Thinking.” Art New Zealand 182 (Winter 2022): 51.
Lonie, Bridie. “Felix Harris.” In Felix Harris: Silence in Paradise, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Felix Harris: Silence in Paradise,” June 2023, Olga Gallery, Dunedin.
Lonie, Bridie. “Ecological Thought in the Paintings of James Robinson, Jenna Packer and Ayesha Green.” In The Dialogics of Contemporary Art Painting Politics, edited by Simon Ingram, Gregory Minissale, Caroline Vercoe, Victoria Wynne-Jones, pp. 205-217. Bielefeld/Berlin: Kerber Art, 2022.
Lonie, Bridie. “‘Mind Wandering’: the Art of Wesley John Fourie.” In Wesley John Fourie: They Came to Me in the Night, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Wesley John Fourie: They Came to Me in the Night,” 27 August–24 September 2022, RDS Gallery, Dunedin.
McLean, Thomas. “Beyond the Frame,” North & South, June 2023, pp. 50–55.
McClean, Thomas. “Engraving and More: The Curious Career of Rona Dyer (1923-2021).” Art New Zealand 185 (Autumn 2023): 84-88.
McLean, Thomas. “Gorse! What is it good for?” North & South, February 2023, pp. 67–69.
McLean, Thomas. “Gorse Is People.” In The Making and Remaking of Australasia: Mobility, Texts and ‘Southern Circulations, edited by Tony Ballantyne, pp. 183-196. New York/London: Bloomsbury, 2022.
McLean, Thomas. “Beyond Steampunk,” North & South, November 2022, pp. 80–1.
Novero, Cecilia. “Striking (Up) Multispecies Friendships: Creative Collaborations with Crows and Hawks.” Società Italiana Antropologia Applicata, Verona, Italy, 14-17 December 2022. Refereed Conference Presentation; Libro del Convegno, pp. 84-87.
Novero, Cecilia. “Messmates at the Table: From Companion Pieces to Companion Species.” In Kate Fitzharris: Companion Piece, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Companion Piece, October 2022, RDS Gallery, Dunedin.
Novero, Cecilia. “Avant-Garde Cli-Fi Avant-la-Lettre: Döbin’s Mountains Seas and Giants (1924).”Centro Studi Arti della Modernità, Turin, Italy, 14-18 May 2022. Refereed Conference Presentation.
Osborne, Joanna. Reviews of “Te Whanaketanga / Something is Happening Here,” Robin White; “Len Castle”; “Ka Kore Kua Kore,” Aidan Taira Geraghty (Kāi Tahu, Ngāi Tūāhuriri) & Moewai Marsh (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Huirapa, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa), ODT, 15 June 2023.
Osborne, Joanna. Reviews of “Nirun,” Sorawit Songsataya; “The Wandering Womb,” Pleun Gremmen (Netherlands) and Menahem Wrona (Brazil); “For the Love of Birds: The artistic depiction and classification of New Zealand birds,” Dunedin Public Libraries, ODT, 25 May 2023.
Osborne, Joanna. “Sandra Bushby and Natalie Guy in Conversation with Margaret Johanna Paul,” NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Blue Fleur,” Olga Gallery, May 2023, Dunedin.
Osborne, Joanna. Reviews of “Noise Collector,” Sujii Park; “Kā Kaihōpara,” Peter Robinson; “Tintypes,” Bridget Reweti, ODT, 27 April 2023.
Osborne, Joanna. Reviews of “Te Mai Peita,” and “Kare ā-Roto,” Angus Tahere Hayes, both at Tini Whetū Project Space; “Irreplaceable,” Kirstin O’Sullivan Pere; “Leaf,” Jae Hoon Lee, ODT, 30 March 2023.
Osborne, Joanna. “Allie Eagle (1949-2022).” Art New Zealand 183 (Spring 2022): 55-57.
Radner, Hilary. “The Cat’s Tale: Two Paintings by Felix Harris.” In Felix Harris: Silence in Paradise, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Felix Harris: Silence in Paradise,” June 2023, Olga Gallery, Dunedin.
Radner, Hilary. “The Greening of Aotearoa: Art and the Death of the Earth.” In Wesley John Fourie and Ngā Roma Poa: Green-screened, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Green-screened, February 2022, Wave Project Space, Dunedin.
Radner, Hilary, “Kate Fitzharris: Companion Piece.” In Kate Fitzharris: Companion Piece, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Companion Piece, October 2022, RDS Gallery, Dunedin.
Radner, Hilary. “I don’t want your golden apple.” In I don’t want your golden apple, edited by Anita De Soto, NP. Published on the occasion of the exhibition I don’t want your golden apple, August 2022, De Novo Gallery, Dunedin. Dunedin: Otago Polytechnic, 2022. doi.org/10.34074/cata.220826
Radner, Hilary and Michael Greaves. “In Conversation with Michael Greaves, February 2022.” In The Promise and the Fall, edited by Michael Greaves, pp. 11-13. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “The Promise and the Fall,” May 2022, Olga Gallery. Dunedin: Otago Polytechnic, 2022. doi.org/10.34074/cata.220512
Raghav, Radhika. “Seeing is Believing: A Study of the Hindu Diaspora’s Visual Culture in North America.” In “The Politics of Representation in South Asian Visual Culture: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives,” panel organised by Radhika Raghav. Popular Culture Conference, the Society for Cultural Studies, Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (KWG), Saarland University, 27–30 September 2023. Refereed conference presentation and panel. [Presenter and panel organiser; panel and paper accepted.]
Raghav, Radhika. “Honour and Masculine Pride for the Country: How the Bollywood Sports Biopic 83 Furthers India’s Nationalist Cause,” theconversation.com. 24 January 2022.https://theconversation.com/honour-and-masculine-pride-for-the-country-how-the-bollywood-sports-biopic-83-furthers-indias-nationalist-cause-174783 .[Translated by Geneviève Sellier and published in French as “Kabir Khan 83: Bollywood au service du nationalisme hindou,” genre-ecran.net, 7 April 2022,https://www.genre-ecran.net/?__83__ ]
Research Seminar: Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network 3 May 2023
Research Seminar: Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network 3 May 2023
Room F209, F Block, Otago Polytechnic, Forth Street, Dunedin: 5 – 7 pm
“Digit Painting – brown/purple over pink, 2022, by Noel Ivanoff”
Ed Hanfling, Dunedin School of Art
Noel Ivanoff, Digit Painting – brown/purple over pink, 2022, oil on plywood panel, 740 x 560 mm
This talk is an attempt to come to terms with one abstract painting by Auckland artist Noel Ivanoff, attending to the “touch” of the painter and (perhaps) having recourse to the seemingly unremarkable (but possibly contentious) notion of the artist’s personal sensibility, and (with some trepidation) placing Ivanoff’s work in relation to an unfurling tradition of abstract painting in New Zealand by male artists, notably Milan Mrkusich and Ian Scott.
Ed Hanfling is an art historian, critic and occasional curator, and a lecturer in art history and theory at the Dunedin School of Art. His research focuses on issues of judgement and value, modernist abstraction and twentieth-century art in Aotearoa New Zealand. He is a co-author of 250 Years of New Zealand Painting (Bateman 2021), and has published books and/or articles on a succession of male abstract artists – Milan Mrkusich, Ian Scott, Morris Louis, Mervyn Williams, Roy Good, et al.
Research Seminar:Cultures, Histories, Identities in Visual Studies Research Network April 05, 2023
Room F209, F Block, Otago Polytechnic, Forth Street, Dunedin: 5:30 pm–7:00 pm
Painted Visions of Propriety: Raja Ravi Varma and the Feminine Ideal in Indian Visual Culture
Radhika Raghav, University of Otago
Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906) Damayanti and the Swan, (c.1880s), oil on canvas.
In nineteenth-century India, against the backdrop of colonial industrialisation and rising Hindu nationalism, a new set of images was finding its way into the visual realm—lithographic prints by artist Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906). The colourful prints were reproductions of Varma’s hugely popular academic-style oil paintings of the Vedic heroines depicted as virtuous consorts of the mythical Hindu ancestors. Thereafter, Varma’s female models were sustained across industrial arts, including cinema, and shaped the visual prototype of ideal (Hindu) femininity. This seminar frames the iconographical development and commercial distribution of the canonical heroines painted by Varma vis-à-vis the question of a woman’s beauty and duty in modern India. Furthermore, it sheds light on how Varma’s female model continues to enjoy supremacy over other modes of womanhood in the visual culture of twenty-first century India.
Radhika Raghav currently teaches in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Otago, Dunedin. She holds a PhD in Visual Studies and a master’s degree in Art History. Her research interests revolve around the representations of gender and sexuality in South Asian popular culture and media.
Dunedin School of Art and University of Otago (Languages and Cultures)
Wesley John Fourie and Ngā Roma Poa: Green-sceened
Wesley John Fourie and Ngā Roma Poa: Green-screened
Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name held 3-24 February 2023 at Wave Project Space, RDS Gallery Publications (Dunedin: 2023).
Occasional Essays Series, edited by Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner.
For a PDF of this issue, click HERE!
