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Taking as its departure point Bernard Smith's classic study, European Vision and the South Pacific (1960), Double Vision explores the ambivalences of European perceptions of the Pacific and juxtaposes them with the indigenous visual cultures that challenge western assumptions about art and representation. Double Vision addresses these larger interpretive questions through case studies of the cultures of voyages, colonial art, and indigenous affirmations of identity. It suggests that images and texts can be combined through a new practice of innovative, visually oriented cultural history. This approach yields a fresh understanding of history, colonialism and culture in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Double Vision is a challenging combination of visual and textual inquiry, and its outstanding list of contributors offer a fresh perspective on art and history in the Pacific.
List of contents
Introduction Nicholas Thomas; Part I. Voyages: 1. Reimagining Juan Fernandez: probability, possibility and pretence in the South Seas Jonathan Lamb; 2. Images of monarchy: Kamehameha I and the art of Louis Choris Harry Liebersohn; 3. Art as ethnohistorical text: science, representation and indigenous presence in 18th and 19th century oceanic voyage Bronwen Douglas; Part II. Colonies: 4. The penitentiary as paradise Michael Rosenthal; 5. Under Saturn: melancholy and the colonial imagination Ian McLean; 6. Looking at Goldie: face to face with 'All 'e Same t'e Pakeha' Leonard Bell; Part III. Imaginings Beyond Colonialism: 7. Voices beyond the Pae Robert Jahnke; 8. The importance of birds: or, the relationship between art and anthropology reconsidered Diane Losche; Part IV. Counter-Colonial Imaginings: 9. Past present: the local art of colonial quotation Joan Kerr; 10. Australian icons: notes on perception Gordon Bennett; Afterword: clumsy Utopians Peter Brunt.
Summary
This book explores the ambivalences of European perceptions of the Pacific and juxtaposes them with the indigenous visual cultures that challenge western assumptions about art and representation. It yields a fresh understanding of history, colonialism and culture in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
