Reparative Aesthetics: Rosangela Renno and Fiona Pardington

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Reparative Aesthetics, curated by Susan Best, was comprised of photographs by two women artists from the southern hemisphere, contributing to what has been called the "archival turn" in contemporary art; that is, artists who bring to the fore marginal or ignored histories. Selections from two series were shown: Vulgo [Alias] (1998-99) by Brazilian artist Rosangela Renno and Ahua: A Beautiful Hesitation (2009), by New Zealander Fiona Pardington. CONTRIBUTION: The exhibition brings these two outstanding artists together to consider their distinct contributions to the 'archival turn.' The literature on the archival turn has overwhelmingly concentrated on artists from North America and Europe. Best characterises the two artists as taking a reparative approach to shameful histories: Renno transforms objectifying identification photographs of Afro-Brazilian prisoners (taken between 1920 and 1940) into powerful portraits, while Pardington redeems nineteenth-century life casts of Oceanic peoples made during the last of the so-called voyages of discovery to the southern seas. The casts were originally intended to buttress emerging theories of racial difference. SIGNIFICANCE: Research for the exhibition was supported by an Australia Council New Work grant. The exhibition was reviewed in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. Julie Ewington selected the show as a visual arts highlight in 2016 in the Australian Book Review. She described it as "a poignant pairing of artists from Brazil and New Zealand by art historian Susan Best, in a model of curatorial decisiveness." The research also resulted in a book published by Bloomsbury in 2016.