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  • Distance and Immediacy: Investigating narratives of portability

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    West,Fiona Final Thesis_Redacted.pdf (6.566Mb)
    Author(s)
    West, Fiona
    Primary Supervisor
    Woodrow, Ross
    Other Supervisors
    Younger, Janette
    Year published
    2019-08-06
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    With reference to the global emigration of South Africans (South African diaspora), this thesis explores themes of displacement, identity and cultural belonging. The hybrid figurine of a modified hula doll, adapted specifically from tourist memorabilia is used as a key motif in my investigation of narratives of portability and the portability of identity in particular. My research relies on a mix of puppet and collage typology, and the manipulation of miniatures and scale that emphasize spatial experiences. Hula dolls and a plastic Kewpie Doll, directly referencing Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, are recurring ...
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    With reference to the global emigration of South Africans (South African diaspora), this thesis explores themes of displacement, identity and cultural belonging. The hybrid figurine of a modified hula doll, adapted specifically from tourist memorabilia is used as a key motif in my investigation of narratives of portability and the portability of identity in particular. My research relies on a mix of puppet and collage typology, and the manipulation of miniatures and scale that emphasize spatial experiences. Hula dolls and a plastic Kewpie Doll, directly referencing Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, are recurring motifs. These figurines act as metaphors for implied journeys, displacement and transformation. I work with a wide range of materials and mixed mediums to construct imagined worlds, in which I choreograph light, handcrafted stencils and kinetic objects. I aim to reconcile my use of these contrived or synthetic constructions and assembled collages through the amplification of their artifice within my videos and photographs. Working within the established range of methodologies associated with practice-based research, I draw particularly on phenomenology as lived experience, and utilize the phenomenological perspective of Merleau-Ponty. The aim of the studio investigation is to add to an understanding of the experience of South Africans living in Australia and perhaps the broader narrative and other mechanisms of displacement and construction of identity.
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    Thesis Type
    Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
    Degree Program
    Doctor of Visual Arts (DVA)
    School
    Queensland College of Art
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/3375
    Copyright Statement
    The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
    Subject
    South Africa
    Puppets
    Dolls
    Collage
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/386629
    Collection
    • Theses - Higher Degree by Research

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