Tuesday 24 February 2009

Germaine Greer at the Melbourne Writers Festival 2008

A friend has just reminded me to watch this, and I'm so grateful.
Germaine asks and provokes the right questions and debates/discussions...I really want to find a way to make a difference and continue aspects of her thesis within my work; namely that constant feeling of guilt and imbalance I experience living in Australia, and in Tasmania in particular.

There is a layer of blackness under the surface of the landscape here which does not, and never will belong to us Anglo-Occupators, and it feels so wrong and negative to assume ownership of something we don't even understand because we don't have the ice ages of experience and mythology indigenous Australians have and which gives them the subconscious and conscious language to communicate with the land, which is all-important on this continent.

I feel very motivated to pursue this further and really make some uncomfortable artwork to somehow address and translate these issues, which I feel are important and essential to address...obviously I'm writing this now with the instant flush of passion and emotion which Germaine's speech has given me, and so I may not sound terribly coherent right here...I will leave that to my artwork to realise, as I give it the time and space it requires to formulate a convincing argument and physical appearance!

Happy viewing...

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