2009 AAANZ Conference Abstracts - The Art Association of Australia ...

censorship upheld in the new constitution.
But Victor welcomes these reactions. Like Heyman, she is
realistic about the limited power of art to change the system, but
nonetheless works in the belief that it can play a potent role in
conscientising viewers.
Elizabeth Rankin is Professor of Art History at the University of
Auckland. Her research on South African art, and printmaking in
particular, has led to her interest in the role of art in social change.
7. Lebanon and Cronulla: Networks, Assemblages and
Transnational Aesthetics
Dr David McNeill
This paper describes a tendency in contemporary curatorial
practice to orchestrate “assemblages” of works rather than
to treat individual pieces as self-sufficient aesthetic entities
or “statements”. It argues that progressive exhibitions now
tend to liberate complex meanings and affects through the
adroit juxtaposition of works, even when this necessitates
subordinating authorial intent and the autonomy of these works.
Such assemblages frequently mobilise ligatures of meaning
that are transnational in their reach. The paper will posit a
new understanding of curatorial practice that draws on the
assemblage theory of DeLanda, the Actor-Network theory of
Bruno Latour and aspects of globalisation theory.
The paper will follow the production of one such assemblage,
connecting the 2006 IDF invasion of Lebanon and the 2005
Cronulla riots in Sydney through the work of three artists; the
Lebanese Australian Khaled Sabsabi, the Lebanese graphic
artist and improv musician Mezan Kerbaj and the Greek
Australian digital sculptor Phillip George.
David McNeill is collaborating with researchers in the
Netherlands and South Africa on the Government funded
project: Rethinking Political Intervention: The Epistemic Shift in
Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice, and the Emergence of
Ethical Globalism. David has published widely on globalisation
and postcolonial politics and co-convened the Centre’s Asian
Traffic conference on art, politics and diaspora. David has
curated exhibitions of contemporary African work and recently
co-curated the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politic’s
Disobedience exhibition, looking at forms of activism.
8. Narrative Awkwardness: Laughter, Exile and
Emergency in Palestinian Art and Film
Chrisoula Lionis
Documentary film is by far the most popular style employed
by Palestinian filmmakers. The dominance of the documentary
genre mirrors the trajectory of Palestinian visual art, which until
recent years has been typified by nationalist imagery; fixated on
the narration of collective experience.
The inclination toward documentary and its corresponding
didactic, linear characteristics is arguably a result of the
‘emergency’ of Palestinian statelessness. Holding the
subordinate position within the historical archive, the Palestinian
compulsion toward documentary could be explained as an
attempt to lend Palestinian history and experience a stable,
archival place.
Hovering above the boundary between documentary and
narrative cinema, the films of Palestinian director Elia Suleiman
problematize the national narrative of history and experience. As
one of Palestine’s most renowned filmmakers, Suleiman is often
burdened with the responsibility to create a cohesive, linear,
Palestinian national narrative and cinema. Despite this, Suleiman
actively ruptures narrative, revealing the impossibility of national
and cultural unanimity.
As such, his films exemplify two ‘emergencies’ facing
Palestinians; the emergency of cultural cohesion, and the
emergency presented by exile and occupation. Using humour as
a tool of implication, Suleiman’s film Awkward provides insight
into the Palestinian experience of urbicide and the pressures of
coalescing a cohesive national identity.
Chrisoula Lionis is a PhD candidate at the Centre for
Contemporary Art and Politics, UNSW. Her thesis, entitled The
DisOriented Laugh looks at the role of Palestinian humour in
contemporary art and film practice. Her broad area of research
focuses on the relationship between contemporary art, trauma
and humour studies.
9. Reality Crisis: Manufacturing Paradise in
Contemporary China
Dr Shivaun Weybury
This paper explores the representation and the actual
manufacture of paradise in contemporary China, focussing
specifically on the south-western province of Yunnan. The
paper consolidates research undertaken in Yunnan earlier this
year, which was originally produced in the form of a weblog,
documenting a journey to many of what the Chinese consider to
be the region’s most enviable tourist destinations, ending in the
town of Zhongdian, which the Chinese government has literally
renamed “Shangri-La”, after the mythical Tibetan paradise
of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon (1933). Both the blog and the
paper set out to examine the imaginary economy that not only
fuels the Chinese tourism and real estate industries but has
come to influence individuals’ perceptions of what constitutes
a desirable future. With reference to work by contemporary
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