Jacquline Chlanda

Artist Janine Antoni has consistently examined the in utero as part of her career long investigation into the maternal, establishing a model of subjectivity that comes into focus at the nexus between mother and daughter. In (Feudian or Lacanian) psychoanalytic terms the relation to the mother is positioned as that which must be repressed in order for the child to enter subjectivity through paternal law. Against this formulation, Chlanda argues that in Antoni’s work the maternal is established as an inclusive and generative structure of subjectivisation. Significantly, she argues that this model of subjectivisation is developed out of the in utero encounter between mother and child, but is extended into post partum dynamics of the matrilineal; the legacy of the in utero encounter endures in the post partum. Drawing on feminist psychoanalytic theory and philosophy Chlanda reads in the maternal in Antoni’s work through three photographs: Momme 1995; Coddle 1999; and One Another 2008.

A brief introduction to terminology will be provided before the paper.

Jacqueline Chlanda is a PhD candidate in the School of Communications and Arts at the University of Queensland (UQ). She has worked in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Australian Art departments at the National Gallery of Australia. She has tutored in Art History at UQ and at Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art (QCA), and most recently lectured a course at QCA called ‘Art, gender, Sexuality and the Body.’ She is from Alice Springs.

Jennifer Taylor

Jenny Taylor is 2017 ‘Creative in Residence’ at Araluen Cultural Centre. The residency program is funded by Arts NT, and involves searching the Araluen collection for works which resonate with a chosen theme, and making new work in response to them.

In this case the theme is ‘Dream of home’. Jenny will talk about why this theme was chosen, and how it has been investigated so far. She will share a collection of phrases, lines of poetry, and concepts that have so far provided a loose theoretical framework for inquiry into aspects of home/homelessness and belonging. She will show images of work and invite discussion.

Jonny Rowden

Jonny is a British-born performing artist currently located in Alice Springs. His practice is typically located in participatory, food-based, and public performance. He recently performed at The Goods Cafe as part of Totem’s Living Theatre program for the Desert Festival. Kieran Finnane described the work in the Alice News: “The intimate experience of Born and Bread was quietly thrilling … generous and coherently thought-out”.

Born & Bread invited audience members to consider notions of ‘home’ and what it means to create a sense of belonging and comfort in an unfamiliar place and space. While the work was relatively humble, for the artist it was quietly laced with the complexities of colonialism, and as a such Jonny will be hosting an open discussion about practicing performance art, the themes involved in his work and other furthering his artistic research before he begins a 6-week long residency in Chandigarh, India.

Event Night

Photos by Zoya Godoroja-Prieckaerts