The Anonymous Portrait: A Creative and Critical Investigation of Diaspora, Portraiture, Subjectivity by Gali Weiss Grad. Dip. (Visual Arts), Monash University MA (Fine Arts), Monash University An exegesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Arts) School of Communication and the Arts Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development Victoria University November 2008 Abstract This thesis proposes a viewing of portraiture through the conceptualisation and consciousness of diaspora. The thesis is divided into two sections: a creative body of original artwork and a supporting exegesis. The practice-based part of the thesis presents collective, non-essentialised portraits in the form of installations comprising works-on-paper and artist’s books, while the exegesis investigates artistic and intellectual perspectives on portraiture in light of some contemporary thinking on diaspora theory and experience. Together, the two parts of the thesis propose a re-visioning and “rethinking” of the relationship between portraiture, diaspora and subjectivity that shifts the function of the portrait from a referential to a performative role, finding significance not in the fixed identity of a sitter/subject, but in the relational and collective subjectivities forged between artist, subject and viewer. By positioning portraiture alongside diaspora, I have explored notions that arise from shared experiences of diaspora, drawing on the critical vocabulary of postmodernist cultural discourses of globalisation and dispersion while examining how contemporary portraiture can reflect such an understanding of the world, and in particular how it interacts with and “thinks through” notions of identity, subjectivity and representation. ii Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Arts) Declaration I, Gali Weiss, declare that the PhD (Creative Arts) exegesis entitled The Anonymous Portrait: A Creative and Critical Investigation of Diaspora, Portraiture, Subjectivity is no more than 100,000 words in length including quotes and exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, references and footnotes. This exegesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this exegesis is my own work. Signature: Gali Weiss Date: 8th August, 2009 iii Acknowledgements Many people participated in this thesis. As a creative thesis that relied in particular on sitter/subjects, it involved the collaboration of a large number of people, thirty in all, whose images were used in the portraits. I thank each and every one – family members and friends – who gave of their time with generosity and interest to take part in this process. To my principal supervisor Michele Grossman I owe enormous gratitude for the expert guidance and the enthusiasm she displayed for my project throughout the years of my candidature. With her extensive knowledge, sharp intelligence, creative outlook and eloquent language skills, Michele provided me with excellent advice and encouragement. To Euan Heng, my visual arts supervisor, who has mentored me in my professional artistic journey since 1996, I am grateful for his thoughtful, perceptive and critical engagement with my work. Both supervisors went out of their way to be available to my needs, and to travel at times long distances to see my work and discuss its development. Both maintained a sense of humour and sensitivity when I lacked the first and had too much of the other. I feel very fortunate to have received such support. I would like to thank Claire Warren, who saw the details and helped me through the big picture. Claire was involved in every section of my project; as one of the subjects for the works-on-paper portraits and artist’s books, and by contributing her typesetting and designing skills to the exegesis. Thank you also for listening and making excellent coffee, and reminding me to breathe. I also thank others who contributed their expertise to my project. Tracey Avery who I met during this period of research as a colleague and who is now a firm friend, I thank for iv the stimulating conversations and the writing towards my exhibition. I look forward to our future collaborations. Thank you to Lynne Pearson for the interest and care in designing my catalogue. To George Matoulas, I extend my thanks for the use of his studio facilities and advice. Thank you to my friends Felicity Collins and Susannah Radstone for sharing with me their doctoral experiences from both supervisor and candidate perspectives. Thank you to Victoria University and the Secomb family for the opportunities I was given to advance my development. Finally, I wish to thank my family for their support of my work. During this period of PhD research we experienced a death and a birth, the last of a generation and the beginning of a new one for my family. Rather than distract me from my work, these milestones seemed to give even more meaning to the content of my project. My first-born daughter Netanela Mizrahi I thank for patiently allowing me to draw her since childhood and for extending that continuity with her own daughter Bes, and for keeping my project in mind when encountering relevant information. My younger daughter Meira Mizrahi, I thank for her involvement in my practice throughout her life, and for her insightful feedback and engagement with my work. To my sister Negba Weiss-Dolev, to Shmulik Dolev, Tamar Dolev and Nimrod Dolev, thank you all for the years of support in both practical and emotional ways. v CONTENTS Abstract ii Declaration iii Acknowledgements iv List of Figures x Introduction 1 1 Moving: On diaspora 5 Diaspora the word 5 Defining diaspora 12 Diaspora Continuity and Difference 15 Difference between 15 Continuity 15 Mobility and change 17 Place 21 Home and return 25 Diaspora as a way of viewing the world 31 2 Facing: On portraiture 36 Identifying portraiture 36 Portraiture challenged and challenging 37 The portrait in history 39 The ideology of “type” 39 vi Symbolic and stylised identities: Portraiture from Early Christianity to the Renaissance 42 “Rebirth” of the individual ideal 42 The naturalistic “type” of authority 43 Character of expression: the growing interest in the face 45 The group portrait as social place 47 Portraiture as cultural practice 48 The portrait as critique 48 Realism and “truth” in the nineteenth-century portrait 51 Democratising the portrait: photography’s new vision 53 The dualist paradigm in portraiture 57 Representation and subjectivity in challenge 58 Foundations of my portrait work 63 Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1910 (Fig. F19) 64 Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962 (Fig. F20) 68 Andy Warhol, Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, 1980 (Fig. F21) 71 Christian Boltanski, Le Lycée Chases, 1987–1991 (Figs F22, F23, F24) 74 3 Seeing: On visuality 78 Visual culture 88 Diasporic visual culture 89 Visualising the copy as a tool for new thinking 95 From photograph to portrait 97 The image; the photocopy 99 Familial looks 100 Postmemory 102 vii 4 Being: On subjectivity 105 The problematics of naming 105 Portraiture as “culture” 109 Constructing identities 111 Cindy Sherman 112 Orlan 115 Gillian Wearing 117 Relationality 120 The subject position 123 Anonymity in the work of Christian Boltanski 124 Time and becoming 130 Roberto Cuoghi and “becoming” 132 5 Erasing 135 The act of erasure 137 Erasure in return 141 Nostalgia 143 Layered erasure: Zhang Huan 145 Repetition and Lindy Lee 147 Ghostliness 152 Doubling 154 Inheritance 155 6 Drawing 157 From presence to absence to presence: drawing, memory and change 157 The autonomy of marks: chance and intentionality 161 viii Ambiguity in gesture and meaning: the drawings of Marlene Dumas 162 Drawing subjectivity 165 Ambiguity in the decipherable mark 166 Drawing time 168 The Anonymous Portrait: The visual work 171 The subjects 171 The paper 171 The artist’s books 172 Description of the Works Exhibited 172 Touch 172 Skin 173 Gaze 174 Artist’s books 174 Migrations 177 Bibliography 186 ix List of Figures Introduction I1 Gali Weiss, Aaron #1, 2000, 56.5 x 76 cm 2 Photocopy transfer, charcoal, graphite, on Arches paper I2 Gali Weiss, Aaron #5, 2000, 56.5 x 76 cm 2 Ink wash, photocopy transfer, charcoal, graphite, on Arches paper Moving M1 Lisa Hilli, Mama Bilong Mi, 2005 29 Image from Just Like Home video Facing F1 The Kritios Boy, attributed to Kritios, c. 480 BCE 41 Marble, 1.17 metres high Archaeological museum of the Acropolis, Athens F2 Medallion of Diocletian and Maximiam, Trier 293 (?) 41 Gold, diam. 4.2 cm; 54.45 gm The American Numismatic Society, New York F3 Fayum Portrait of a Man (Mummy Portrait), 120–30 CE 41 Encaustic, 36 x 18.5 cm Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York F4 Sant’ Appolinaire in Classe interior, 44 Detail of apse mosaic, 549 CE Ravenna, Italy F5 Jan Van Eyck, Man in a Red Turban (self-portrait?), 1433 44 Oil on panel, 26 x 19 cm The National Gallery, London F6 Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) Pope Leo X with Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, c. 1518 44 Oil on panel, 154 x 119 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence x