Anti-monuments to the Immemorial Exploring the how, why, and what next of our relationship to our environment.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
Monuments typify human habitation of place, memorialising ideologies of the prevailing power from moments in time. In recent decades, their form has undergone a revolution. Along with their transformation from the heavy permanence of monumentality, to the temporality of anti-monumental form — subject matter has also diametrically shifted from representing the state, to representing the marginalised. My practice-based research explores further the anti-monuments’ potential for social activism — to expand memorialisation beyond a human-centric narrative, to acknowledge the immemorial forces that shape place over deep time. An iterative creative process informs the major body of site-responsive works Human/Nature undertaken as Artist in Residence at Kyneton Botanic Gardens in regional Victoria, Australia, presented at the Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial 2018.
Drawing on the site’s deep time environmental and ideological origins as transformative forces, I created a series of anti-monuments: activating public space as an experimental laboratory to explore and discover the how, why, and what next of our relationship to our environment.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
The Authors retain copyright for articles published in The Journal of Public Space, with first publication rights granted to the journal.
Articles in this journal are published under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Licence (CC-BY-NC) - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
You are free to:
• Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material
Under the following terms:
• Attribution - You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
References
Blake, W, & Washington, W. J. (1968). Lines from the auguries of innocence, Bembridge.
Braidotti, R, Karvelas, P, (2018). ‘The human and the posthuman’, The Drawing Room, ABC, 17 April 2018. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drawingroom/the-human-and-the-posthuman/10616346.
Cardiff, J. (1991). Forest Walk, audio Walk 12mins, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canadian Artist in Residence Program, Alberta, Canada.
Carrington, D. (2016). ‘The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age’, The Guardian, 29 August, viewed 20 July 2018. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth.
Connerton, P. (2008), ‘Seven types of forgetting’, Memory Studies, SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore, pp. 59-71.
Cresswell, T. (2015). Place: an introduction, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, UK.
Delamotte, P.H. (1859). Mother of the Forest in London Crystal Palace in 1859, English Heritage, digital image, viewed 15 December 2017, CC-PD-US. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_of_the_Forest_in_London_Crystal_Palace_1859.jpg.
Doherty, C. (2015). Out of Time, Out of Place: Public Art Now, Art Books Publishing and Situations, UK.
Farrier, D. (2016). ‘How the concept of deep time is changing’, The Atlantic. Availabe at: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/aeon-deep-time/505922/. Accessed 31 October 2016.
Grant, B. (2016), Overview, © DigitalGlobe, Inc.
Hung, W. (2002). ‘Mapping Contemporaneity in Asia-Pacific Art’, Asia-Pacific Triennial, Queensland, Australia.
Kalman, T, Lasn, K, et al (1999). ‘First Things First Manifesto 2000’. Eye, [Online] 9(33). Available at: www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/first-things-first-manifesto-2000. Accessed 8 August 2018.
Kolodziejski, L. (2015). ‘What is Missing? Reflections on the Human-Nature Relationship in Maya Lin’s Final Memorial’, Environmental Communication, 9(4), pp. 428-445.
Lefebvre, H. (1968). The Sociology of Marx, Random House.
Lowenthal, D. (2015). ‘Origins of Anthropocene Awareness’, The Anthropocene Review 2016, 3(1), pp. 52-63.
Savage, K. (1999). ‘The Past in the Present’, Harvard Design Magazine, Issue 9: The Past in the Present. Available at: http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/9/the-past-in-the-present. Accessed on 29 July 2016.
Smudge Studio (2011). Geologic City: a Field Guide to the GeoArchitecture of New York, New York.
Stanley, J. (2018). Human/Nature, Act 01: Native/Foreign, Meteorological/ Geological. Ephemeral installation, bluestone aggregate and dust, local brown and grey dermosol soil, 5.6x5.6m. Audio track 02:36. Location: Former Ajax Factory, 31 Beauchamp Street, Kyneton. Part of a series of participatory works in public space, Artist in Residence, Kyneton Botanic Gardens, Kyneton, Victoria.
Stanley, J. (2018). Human/Nature, Act 03: Space/Time (Space/Time 05:14, Above/Below 02:06, Monument/Counter-Monument 03:42, Create/Destroy 01:45, Profit/Value 04:00). Guided walk, map, audio Location: Kyneton Botanic Gardens, Kyneton. Final act in a series of participatory works in public space, Artist in Residence, Kyneton Botanic Gardens, Kyneton, Victoria.
Stevens Q, Franck KA, Fazakerley R. (2012). ‘Counter-monuments: the anti-monumental and the dialogic’, The Journal of Architecture, 17(6), pp. 951-972.
Winter, J. (1999). ‘Remembrance and redemption’, Harvard Design Magazine, Issue 9: The Past in the Present. Available at: http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/9/remembrance-and-redemption. Accessed 29 July 2016.
Young, J.E. (1992). ‘The Counter-Monument: Memory against itself in Germany today’, Critical Inquiry, 18(2) (Winter), pp. 267-296.