Art Writing and Coastal Change: Story-Telling in the Blue Economy

Abstract

By connecting artworks with their historical and environmental contexts, writing about art introduces new ways to understand the ecological histories of this changing world. Art writing is more than art history; it uses narrative nonfiction to tell stories of individual encounter and collective imagination. Situated amidst concerns for the threat of global climate change and alongside research into blue economies in South-east New South Wales (NSW), Australia, this article tells stories of coastal change recorded in artworks. We demonstrate how art writing can offer a bridge between concerns about human impacts on coastal ecosystems, and hopes for what we collectively imagine our future to be. The article offers art writing as an effective interdisciplinary research model for describing thought and felt relationships with our coastlines, past and future.

将艺术作品与其历史和环境背景相联系起来的艺术写作, 是理解这个动态世界的生态历史的新方法。艺术写作不仅涉及艺术史, 它也纪实性地讲述了个人际遇和集体假想的故事。基于对全球气候变化威胁的担忧和对澳大利亚新南威尔士州东南部蓝色经济的研究, 本文讲述了艺术作品中海岸变化的故事。我们展示了艺术写作如何架起一座桥梁, 沟通了对人类影响沿海生态系统的关注和人类共同设想的未来。本文认为, 艺术写作是有效的跨学科研究模式, 能描述我们对海岸线、过去和未来的思考和关联。

Al situar las obras de arte en sus contextos históricos y ambientales, el escribir sobre arte introduce nuevas formas de comprender las historias ecológicas de este mundo en proceso de constante cambio. La escritura sobre arte va más allá de la historia del arte; usa la narrativa de la no ficción para relatar las historias del encuentro individual y la imaginación colectiva. Situado en medio de las preocupaciones derivadas de la amenaza de un cambio climático global, y junto a la investigación que se ocupa de las economías azules del sudeste de Nueva Gales del Sur (NSW), Australia, este artículo hace el recuento de historias del cambio litoral, registrado en las obras de arte. Demostramos cómo escribir sobre arte puede proporcionar un puente entre las preocupaciones sobre los impactos humanos en los ecosistemas costeros y las esperanzas sobre lo que colectivamente vislumbramos como nuestro futuro. El artículo presenta la escritura sobre arte como un modelo eficaz de investigación interdisciplinaria para describir las relaciones que se piensan y se sienten sobre nuestras costas, en el pasado y en el futuro.

Key Words:

• art history
• art writing
• Australia
• blue economy
• coastal change
• ekphrasis
• story-telling.

Keywords:

• 艺术史
• 艺术写作
• 澳大利亚
• 蓝色经济
• 海岸变化
• 符象化
• 讲故事。

Keywords:

• Australia
• écfrasis
• economía azul
• cambio litoral
• escritura sobre arte
• historia del arte
• narración

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We acknowledge that the first drafts of this text were written while living and working on the unceded lands of the Yuin nation. We acknowledge Yuin Country and Elders. The article was finished while writing across two coasts of the Pacific Ocean between Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We gratefully acknowledge conversations with Vincent Bicego, Michelle Voyer, Jade Kennedy and the MECO Network that helped in the formation of these ideas. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their generous and insightful feedback.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Ballard

SUSAN BALLARD is an Associate Professor of Art History at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. E-mail:[email protected]. Her research spans the fields of art history, creative nonfiction, and the environmental humanities. Her articles have appeared in October, Environmental Humanities, Reading Room, The Anthropocene Review, Sydney Review of Books, Griffith Review, Eyeline, and Art New Zealand. Her books include Alliances in the Anthropocene (with Christine Eriksen, 2020), 100 Atmospheres: Studies in Scale and Wonder (with the MECO network, 2019), and Art and Nature in the Anthropocene: Planetary Aesthetics (Routledge, 2021).

Jen Saunders

JEN SAUNDERS is a PhD candidate in the School of the Arts, English and Media at University of Wollongong, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her doctoral project examines the lyric essay as disruption of local histories and place knowledge. Her articles have appeared online in The Conversation and Sociological Review. She has published two books of poetry, Translations (1999, Passionfruit Press) and In A Night House (2002, PressPress), and been shortlisted in the joanne burns MicroLit Award (2016) and the Peter Porter Poetry Prize (2017).