Academic Sessions: London 2003
Visual Cultures of Landscape
Convenor:
Dr Simon Faulkner, s.faulkner@mmu.ac.uk
Department of History of Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University, Righton Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester, M15 6BG. Tel: 0161 860 6016
Abstract:
The geographer David Matless has used the term ‘cultures of landscape’ (Landscape and Englishness, 1998) to describe the ways in which particular sets of practices ‘generate particular ways of being in landscape’ and thus form the basis of specific kinds of identity. This session will emphasise the visual aspects of cultures of landscape, looking at how visual representations have contributed to the establishment of particular ways of imaginatively and physically being in landscape. This emphasis upon ‘being in landscape’ encourages the consideration of the function of visual representations within what Matless defines as ‘processes of subjectification effected through landscape’. This means that visual representations of landscape should not be considered simply as symbolic within formations of identity, but also as a kind of cultural practice, amongst others, that contributes to the construction of geographical selves. Thus an emphasis is placed not merely on the interpretation of landscape imagery, but also on understandings of the use of such images in relation to practices of spatial movement, occupation and demarcation.
The session will prioritise artistic representations of landscape, but will also pursue an intermedial approach by encouraging the identification of links between fine art and other kinds of visual culture. The session will allow for the discussion of current relationships between the study of visual culture and human geography.
David Matless (School of Geography, University of Nottingham) Visual Cultures of Regional Landscape: Breckland.
Paul Usherwood (School of Arts and Sciences, University of Northumbria) The Bleak Philosophy of Northern Ridges.
Ed Lilley (History of Art Department, University of Bristol) Inventing Modern Nature: Claude–Francois Denecourt and the Forest of Fontainebleau.
Divya Tolia–Kelly (Department of Geography, University College London) Visualising Diaspora: Cultures of Landscape in the South Asian Experience.
Leora Maltz (History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University) Landmarks: David Goldblatt and the Marking of the South African Landscape.
Robert Grant (University of Kent) “The country around has all the appearance of a homelike English landscape”: Mid–19th–century British images of colonial landscape.
Kathlaine Nyden (School of Fine Arts, Indiana University) Viewing Nationalism, Displaying Regionalism, Demonstrating Identity: The Function of the Bohemian Landscape in Late 19th–Century Czech Painting.
Tricia Cusack (Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Birmingham) The Chosen People: Hudson Valley Landscapes and American Identity
Sighle Breathnach–Lynch (National Gallery of Ireland) The Role of Landscape in Constructs of Irish National Identity.
Yvonne Scott (Department of History of Art, Trinity College Dublin) The Iconography of Absence: Lost Horizons, Distant Traces
Dr Simon Faulkner, s.faulkner@mmu.ac.uk
Department of History of Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University, Righton Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester, M15 6BG. Tel: 0161 860 6016
Abstract:
The geographer David Matless has used the term ‘cultures of landscape’ (Landscape and Englishness, 1998) to describe the ways in which particular sets of practices ‘generate particular ways of being in landscape’ and thus form the basis of specific kinds of identity. This session will emphasise the visual aspects of cultures of landscape, looking at how visual representations have contributed to the establishment of particular ways of imaginatively and physically being in landscape. This emphasis upon ‘being in landscape’ encourages the consideration of the function of visual representations within what Matless defines as ‘processes of subjectification effected through landscape’. This means that visual representations of landscape should not be considered simply as symbolic within formations of identity, but also as a kind of cultural practice, amongst others, that contributes to the construction of geographical selves. Thus an emphasis is placed not merely on the interpretation of landscape imagery, but also on understandings of the use of such images in relation to practices of spatial movement, occupation and demarcation.
The session will prioritise artistic representations of landscape, but will also pursue an intermedial approach by encouraging the identification of links between fine art and other kinds of visual culture. The session will allow for the discussion of current relationships between the study of visual culture and human geography.
David Matless (School of Geography, University of Nottingham) Visual Cultures of Regional Landscape: Breckland.
Paul Usherwood (School of Arts and Sciences, University of Northumbria) The Bleak Philosophy of Northern Ridges.
Ed Lilley (History of Art Department, University of Bristol) Inventing Modern Nature: Claude–Francois Denecourt and the Forest of Fontainebleau.
Divya Tolia–Kelly (Department of Geography, University College London) Visualising Diaspora: Cultures of Landscape in the South Asian Experience.
Leora Maltz (History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University) Landmarks: David Goldblatt and the Marking of the South African Landscape.
Robert Grant (University of Kent) “The country around has all the appearance of a homelike English landscape”: Mid–19th–century British images of colonial landscape.
Kathlaine Nyden (School of Fine Arts, Indiana University) Viewing Nationalism, Displaying Regionalism, Demonstrating Identity: The Function of the Bohemian Landscape in Late 19th–Century Czech Painting.
Tricia Cusack (Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Birmingham) The Chosen People: Hudson Valley Landscapes and American Identity
Sighle Breathnach–Lynch (National Gallery of Ireland) The Role of Landscape in Constructs of Irish National Identity.
Yvonne Scott (Department of History of Art, Trinity College Dublin) The Iconography of Absence: Lost Horizons, Distant Traces