Locating Place: The work of Sriwhana Spong, Liyen Chong and Tiffany Singh

Abstract

The central concern of this thesis is place. I begin this inquiry by drawing on Lucy Lippard’s paradigm of place as location combined with memory. I also consider Miwon Kwon’s use of the term place in her discussions of site-specificity in contemporary art, and discuss Melissa Chiu and Benjamin Genocchio’s definition of Asia as being a complementary definition to my own notion of place. Place, in this thesis, is an individual’s negotiation of history, memory and story. Departing from Lippard and Kwon, who most often use place to mean a physical entity, I consider how place can be understood as a discursive, non-locational and subjective concept, and point of identification for an individual, as opposed to simply a physical location. In this thesis I develop the writings of Lippard and Kwon in relation to place, and build on them by incorporating the notion of absence into the paradigm of place I argue for. This thesis also establishes the thematics of ritual, memory and narrative as recurring aspects of the artists’ practices, and these themes are contingent to the overarching concern with place. This research looks specifically at the work of three contemporary New Zealand artists, Sriwhana Spong, Liyen Chong and Tiffany Singh. The central concern of this research is to explore and establish how these artists have located and negotiated their complex experiences of place within their practices. Though their practices are diversely different, each of these artists have explored and developed their experience of place in their art works. Place, I suggest, is embodied in their artistic practice, as opposed to a physical location, and I wish to propose the notion that place can be embodied in an art form. The ideas of, place as dance for Spong, a performative act or art object for Chong, and a relational experience or event for Singh will be explored in this discussion. This thesis is offering a new notion of place that contemporary art is enabling to develop.