Resonance in blue
Author: Sarah Pitman
Supervisors: Marion Wassenaar
Pitman, S. (2023). Resonance in blue. (A dissertation in partial fulfilment for the Master of Fine Arts degree at the Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand).
Abstract
resonance: noun, 1. (sound) the quality of being loud and clear. 2. (physics) the production of a sound as a result of vibration (shaking) of another object. 3. (quality) a feeling, thought, memory, etc. that a piece of writing or music makes you have, or the quality in a piece of writing, etc. that makes this happen. dictionarycambridge.org
Resonance in Blue is a visual and textual topographical scan of the colonial landscape in the art history of Aotearoa/New Zealand. This project is an imaginative response to the search for Utopia using print on paper to explore an entwined history of exchange and encounter.
Captain Cook brings Zealandia to a Pacific Island Garden of Eden, to create a Utopian vision in Charles Heaphy inspired landscapes. Personifications of the nation-state Zealandia appear from commemoration stamps and postcards to decorate Blue Willow scenes.
Resonance in Blue probes the colonial landscape as a scenic illusion – the romanticised appeal of longing and belonging that is embodied within Aotearoa/New Zealand’s history becomes a printed pastiche of an imagined pastoral paradise.
Sarah Pitman's supervisor was Marion Wassenaar.
License
This abstract is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International.
