Indefinite Terrains

BACKGROUND There has been an ethnographic turn in contemporary art where artists have engaged key processes from the fields of anthropology as a means to represent contested environments. One of the most common methods claimed in this way is Fieldwork. Artists such as Nicholas Mangan (Nauru, 2010), Sam Smith (Lithic Choreographies, 2018), Sonia Leber and David Chesworth (Where Lakes Once Had Water, 2020) have all claimed fieldwork as a mode of enquiry that explores the subjects of history & site. While field research in art has become more common place, there still exists relatively few examples of artists engaging it as a methodology within the work. Instead artist fieldwork is more commonly positioned as an activity that occurs as auxiliary to the work. CONTRIBUTION Indefinite Terrains is a 17-minute moving image installation that engages the notion of fieldwork in relation to artistic practice. By interrogating the activities and legacies of extraction undertaken in a pine planation, the work positions fieldwork as creative and performative act that directly informs the content and direction of the work’s creative outcome. It contributes to the field of contemporary art by illuminating the diverse ways that artists critically engage the concept of fieldwork which can then be leveraged by practitioners to extend artistic form, language and discourse. SIGNIFICANCE Indefinite Terrains was commissioned (artist fees $3000) for the exhibition The Model Citizen at RMIT Gallery & was curated by scholars Professor Sean Redmond and Darrin Verhagen. The show ran from the 7/2/2019 - 23/3/2019. The exhibition included a catalogue & public program that profiled a one-day symposium and a revolving set of artist talks. The work has since been shown in solo shows at Stockroom Gallery (2019) and Metro Arts (2020), & was presented online in the eco_media 2020 conference which was hosted by the RMIT's Screen & Sound Cultures.