Research Abstract

A Desiccated Garden of Eden: Imaging the Australian Landscape Through an Expanded Photographic Practice

This practice-led research project utilizes an expanded photographic practice to excavate the histories and possible narratives that surround contested sites and landscapes within Australia. As a white settler to Australia, acknowledging the historical use of the camera as a tool for documenting colonial narratives, my research seeks to disrupt photography’s seemingly intrinsic index to the natural world through theories of haunting, erasure and colonial anxiety.

Specifically, my research focuses on the landscape of Lake Mungo, New South Wales, situated on the traditional lands of the Barkindji, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngyiampaa people. Since the discovery and removal of ancient human remains in the 1960s, Lake Mungo has been the site of a tense and ongoing dialogue between Traditional Custodians and scientists. It is a conversation that connects Australia’s recent past with a much deeper history. My work utilises carbon — a material used by scientists to accurately measure time by determining the age of artefacts. Moving between digital, analogue and sculptural photographic practices, I draw parallels between both the use of carbon and photography as materials that address the past within the present Australian landscape. This research explores deep past as a living heritage and recognizes the possibilities and responsibilities it generates.

Bio

Alice Duncan is an artist and image-maker, currently residing in Naarm/Birraranga (Melbourne). Alice’s practice exposes the multifaceted, ever-changing and (most importantly) constructed nature of our personal and cultural identities. Utilising photography, ready made materials and site specific installation, Alice visualises the complexities involved in collectively living on colonised land. She creates images that layer both past and present Australian histories, using a combination of past (analogue) and present (digital) photographic techniques.

Alice completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2014. She was the winner of the acquisitive Terry Cutler Award and finalist in the Majilis Travelling Scholarship for graduate students. In 2019, Alice completed an MA in Photography at RMIT where she was awarded the Kayell Photography Prize and the Dean’s Award for Excellence. She is currently undertaking a practice-led research PhD at RMIT. In 2020, Alice has been chosen as a finalist for the 66th Blake Prize (Sydney), Sunshine Coast Art Prize and CLIP Photography Awards (Perth). Alice’s work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally including solo exhibitions at Bus Projects (Melbourne), Cut Thumb Gallery (Brisbane), Seventh Gallery (Melbourne) and group exhibitions at Pingyao Photography Festival (China), Perth Centre for Photography and Queensland Centre for Photography. Alice has been an artist-in-residence at AARK in Korpo, Finland and the IAM in Berlin, Germany.

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