Exploring Aboriginal identity through Self- portraiture

Abstract

This exegesis examines my practice through my identity as a Kabi Kabi, Wiradjuri, Kuku Ylandji and Pita Pita woman with English, Scottish and Romany Gypsy heritage. It contextualises the development of my practice from 1997 to 2017, which is the period immediately following my graduation from an undergraduate degree until now. The major focus of the exegesis, however, is on works from the last decade, when self-portraiture became a prominent part of my practice, which I explore through a variety of media: photography, performance, painting, drawing, and sculpture. To contextualise my practice, I also examine contemporary artists who utilise Indigenous frameworks to disrupt the traditions of Western portraiture. My own work uses humour and ideas of performativity as tools to positively intervene into debates about Aboriginal identity. For example, my use of the colour pink can be understood as candy coating a difficult conversation around colonisation. I also reclaim the language of the coloniser through serial portraiture and challenge ideas of Aboriginal femininity. Contributing to identity politics art, I refuse the idea of an essential self through the idea of a performative self-portrait. One of my aims is to reclaim Aboriginal agency and to decolonise the idea of the self.