Mooramong Green (series)

Background: The research investigated notions of home, Eurasian female identity and mobility through an applied a photographic self-portraiture practice. With an understanding of Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space (1969), where houses give evidence to meaning and intimacy; this research project used a residency model where the primary research was conducted in the National Trust homestead Mooramong in regional Victoria. This work is situated within a dynamic field of photographic self-portraiture, where performance and the body provide tensions between human form and the landscape, drawing upon artists such as Francesca Woodman, Laura Aguilar and Clare Rae. The project builds upon my practice-led research of situating the Eurasian Australian identity into the landscape, investigating the effects of space of the self. Contribution: This artwork examined a site-specific heritage home, Eurasian identity, and mobility. Utilising self-portraiture, performance and research, the focus of the artwork was to examine how the spaces of the homestead, its histories and environmental setting effect notions of how women embody and create translocational identities within homes. Using a phenomenological poetic approach, the work contributes to a long history of self-portraiture, as well as provides insight into the current socio-cultural landscape of post-colonial practice. Significance: Individual photographs have been selected in a range of significant ways. ‘A View of the Pool’ was selected as a finalist in the Olive Cotton Award for Portraiture at Tweed Regional Gallery. The same photograph was published in the National Trust of Australia magazine. ‘Holding Still’ has been acquired by Bendigo Art Gallery for their collection. The work was featured online and on social media: ‘Antechamber’ was featured as part of Lens Culture ‘Home’ editors’ picks website, and FotoFemmed a curated Instagram profile featured my work including two photographs from the series.