Decolonising Art and Its Histories

Delivered by a team of Austral experts, this subject explores current approaches and debates to decolonisation in the visual arts. With a focus on seeing from the south, it considers artistic forms of critique, including how the legacies and impacts of colonisation are navigated by modern and contemporary artists, writers, art historians, curators and other cultural producers. The subject encompasses topics such as the colonial archive; the retention and repatriation of cultural material; the centring of global Indigenous knowledges, and the critical role of First Nations voices in contemporary culture. The theoretical issues that inform this subject include the relationship between decolonisation, feminism and environmentalism; the history of racial stereotyping in visual cultures; the challenges of cultural agency in the face of colonial legacies; migration and new forms of colonialism and crosscultural collaboration and appropriation. Imperative for those who aim to practice in the southern hemisphere, this subject contributes to the ways in which seeing from the south can not only expose and critique normalised Eurocentric perspectives, but also contribute to future global perspectives.

批判性审视艺术史中的殖民主义影响。

• 1Describe the role that artists and other cultural producers play in decolonising art and its histories.
• 2Recognise the relationship between post-colonial and colonial visual cultures and describe decolonising strategies.
• 3Identify theoretical debates in the contemporary study of colonial culture and postcolonial/decolonising theory.
• 4Ascertain the ways in which discussions in the field of visual arts intersect with debates in the broader interdisciplinary field of postcolonial studies and decolonisation.