Indigenous Australian art photography

Art photographs by Indigenous Australian artists have gained a prominent position in the global art world and are shown in international art fairs and exhibitions. Starting from the view that these photos are as much artworks as they are cultural texts, this work aims at overcoming the rigid gap between aesthetics and the socio-political and cultural context of artworks. This study is based on an interdisciplinary, interculturally adequate and dynamic research method that transcends fields of study and aims at a decolonization of stereotyped constructs. It comprises an assessment of selected art photographs by the artists: Destiny Deacon, Tracey Moffatt, r e a, Brook Andrew, Michael Riley and Ricky Maynard. The author seeks to decode specific Indigenous perspectives in the artworks, arguing that purely ‘western’ criteria for the analysis of the photographs are not sufficient. A radical contextualization which sees the artwork’s form and content as inseparable components is propagated. ‘Contextualised aesthetics’, as it is termed by the author, is described as way to value both form and content, thus recognizing cultural contexts as well as rich aesthetic features of artworks. The last part of the book points to current complex debates within the global art world in regard to international exhibitions and curatorial concepts. Within the discussion of three case studies – exhibitions held in Europe between 2004 and 2006 – the author exemplifies some problems that may arise in international exhibitions of Indigenous Australian photo art.