https://brigittasummers.com.au Brigitta Summers Tue, 29 Oct 2019 03:21:30 +0000 https://brigittasummers.com.au en https://brigittasummers.com.au/Home Tue, 29 Oct 2019 02:20:07 +0000 Brigitta Summers https://brigittasummers.com.au/Home The image is the thing / the image precedes the thing Some New Woodcuts Bleeding Heart STUDIO CREEP Forest Pallet Project Eccentric Subjects Proposal for a Walk Plastic Space 17th April 1816, near Appin Reading CV https://brigittasummers.com.au/Eccentric-Subjects Tue, 29 Oct 2019 03:21:30 +0000 Brigitta Summers https://brigittasummers.com.au/Eccentric-Subjects <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1e52895b2e2d965bfcc39e303a72447eb5442a1e6d0ba0895eacf146fe38ccc3/ES-for-regina-pro-forma-image.jpg" data-mid="53593028" border="0" alt="'For Regina (burned as a witch, 1670)', woodcut, 2019" data-caption="'For Regina (burned as a witch, 1670)', woodcut, 2019" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1e52895b2e2d965bfcc39e303a72447eb5442a1e6d0ba0895eacf146fe38ccc3/ES-for-regina-pro-forma-image.jpg" /> <img width="754" height="499" width_o="754" height_o="499" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d92c9bba53300573e7aaa4ab009e263e41b729e132d5f100c76c3b08ccba9f9b/DSC_2405_small.jpg" data-mid="57264889" border="0" data-scale="100" alt="Once there was a man who knew he was right, woodcut, 2019 (image copyright Peter Morgan)" data-caption="Once there was a man who knew he was right, woodcut, 2019 (image copyright Peter Morgan)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/754/i/d92c9bba53300573e7aaa4ab009e263e41b729e132d5f100c76c3b08ccba9f9b/DSC_2405_small.jpg" /> <img width="1619" height="2400" width_o="1619" height_o="2400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/834a59b33b7b6c69aac0417eb810879e9a07a109ccea8a24ff206548e9f07604/ES-for-anna-juditha-1_edit_layout.jpg" data-mid="54034313" border="0" alt="'For Maria (accused of witchcraft, 1693)', screen print and woodcut, 2019" data-caption="'For Maria (accused of witchcraft, 1693)', screen print and woodcut, 2019" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/834a59b33b7b6c69aac0417eb810879e9a07a109ccea8a24ff206548e9f07604/ES-for-anna-juditha-1_edit_layout.jpg" /> <img width="1510" height="1134" width_o="1510" height_o="1134" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/280229fa31beff8df6a749d6739ce3e66b0b86f08768907482774dfd0f0a3f16/a-stubborn-and-devilish-heart-final_website.jpg" data-mid="53592989" border="0" alt="'Anna Juditha has confessed (1689)', screen print and woodcut, 2019" data-caption="'Anna Juditha has confessed (1689)', screen print and woodcut, 2019" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/280229fa31beff8df6a749d6739ce3e66b0b86f08768907482774dfd0f0a3f16/a-stubborn-and-devilish-heart-final_website.jpg" /> <img width="1546" height="1158" width_o="1546" height_o="1158" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba04bd21903d0da380ef4c31233a5cc7a58733490b455fb80c47f02bc36c9419/now-she-didn-t-have-anything-more-to-say-final_website.jpg" data-mid="53592990" border="0" alt="'Maria insists on her innocence', screen print and woodcut, 2019" data-caption="'Maria insists on her innocence', screen print and woodcut, 2019" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ba04bd21903d0da380ef4c31233a5cc7a58733490b455fb80c47f02bc36c9419/now-she-didn-t-have-anything-more-to-say-final_website.jpg" /> Eccentric Subjects For Regina (burned as a witch, 1670), woodcut, 2019, 129x175cm Once there was a man who knew he was right, woodcut, 2019, 80x120cm For Maria (accused of witchcraft, 1693), screen print and woodcut, 2019, 120x80cm Anna Juditha has confessed (1689), screen print and woodcut, 2019, 129x175cm Maria insists on her innocence, screen print and woodcut, 2019, 129x175cm This project has its beginnings in a subject I took on witchcraft five or so years ago. The emotional intensity of the subject hit me in the gut and I have been thinking about it, on and off, ever since. The emotional resonance of the trial records in particular, the words of women with no other access to a voice, written down (usually under great duress) for me to read 400 years later, was powerful. They made these women real to me in a way that little else in my study of history had. I felt I knew them in some way and could empathise with their struggles. However, the access we have to their voices is entirely contingent on their bodily and psychological destruction. The nature of this fraught access to a voice is the basis of the title of the project, ‘Eccentric Subjects’. This refers to Theresa de Lauretis’ theory of the subject position occupied by those women who are outside the conceptual system imposed by patriarchy. Instead of a subject position that is formed oppositionally to the male subjectivity, de Lauretis proposes a subject who is aware of her multiple, fractured and paradoxical position, and because of this is able, in turn, to achieve a critical position.[1] This has been applied by Frances E. Dolan to women on the scaffold, in which their imminent bodily destruction affords them the opportunity to affirm their subjectivity and gain access to an authority and voice otherwise denied them.[2]Although Dolan does not consider the witch in her analysis, I see the witch trial as another form of this contingent ‘scaffold’ position. The woman accused of witchcraft is able to become an agent in both her own life and in culture. As Lyndal Roper argues, these women’s fantasies, “carried out cultural work, creating the narrative of the witch anew, making sense of emotions and cultural process. Willing or not, witchcraft trials are one context in which women ‘speak’ at greater length and receive more attention than perhaps any other.”[3] It was this paradoxical and fractured position of the witch that I wanted to explore, as well as relating on a personal level to the women about whom I had read. [1] Theresa de Lauretis, “Eccentric Subjects: Feminist Theory and Historical Consciousness.” Feminist Studies 16, no. 1 (Spring): 115-150. [2] Frances E. Dolan, ““Gentlemen, I Have One More Thing To Say”: Women on Scaffolds in England, 1563-1680,” Modern Philology 92, no. 2 (Nov., 1994): 159. [3] Lyndal Roper, Oedipus &amp; the Devil: Witchcraft, sexuality and religion in early modern Europe (London: Routledge, 1994), 20. https://brigittasummers.com.au/17th-April-1816-near-Appin Sat, 07 Sep 2019 05:17:29 +0000 Brigitta Summers https://brigittasummers.com.au/17th-April-1816-near-Appin <img width="3239" height="2432" width_o="3239" height_o="2432" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5300caae176db022ec94d576da5a323a95661e8beeed5340ee543ed6be9206a0/SUMMERS_BRIGITTA_17TH-APRIL-1816--NEAR-APPIN_INTAGLIO_1.jpg" data-mid="53586453" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5300caae176db022ec94d576da5a323a95661e8beeed5340ee543ed6be9206a0/SUMMERS_BRIGITTA_17TH-APRIL-1816--NEAR-APPIN_INTAGLIO_1.jpg" /> <img width="3659" height="2592" width_o="3659" height_o="2592" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/957c26f452136519c569914a9ad35b475de5a6bb59ac2ae29c6f8cfb6af67de3/SUMMERS_BRIGITTA_17TH-APRIL-1816--NEAR-APPIN_INTAGLIO_2.jpg" data-mid="53586454" border="0" data-scale="56" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/957c26f452136519c569914a9ad35b475de5a6bb59ac2ae29c6f8cfb6af67de3/SUMMERS_BRIGITTA_17TH-APRIL-1816--NEAR-APPIN_INTAGLIO_2.jpg" /> <img width="862" height="1300" width_o="862" height_o="1300" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/69b54a66ed2209c74ea685409fe3086dc7aaa73f536fcb9ebe6b4e0d6a56ac87/SUMMERS_BRIGITTA_17TH-APRIL-1816--NEAR-APPIN_INTAGLIO_1_detail.jpg" data-mid="53586455" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/862/i/69b54a66ed2209c74ea685409fe3086dc7aaa73f536fcb9ebe6b4e0d6a56ac87/SUMMERS_BRIGITTA_17TH-APRIL-1816--NEAR-APPIN_INTAGLIO_1_detail.jpg" /> 17th April 1816, near Appin 17th April 1816, near Appin, etching and aquatint, MDF stand, 2018, 57x90x30cm 17th April 1816, near Appin looks at Australia's colonial history, the varying interpretations of that history and how they can be written into and out of the landscape. The landscape depicts the Georges River in the Nepean area south of Sydney, near where a massacre against the local Indigenous population was carried out at the order of Governor Macquarie. The portrait is drawn from a statue of Governor Macquarie found on the corner of Macquarie St and St James Rd. The text seen reads as follow: “Governor Macquarie to Earl Bathurst. 18th March 1816. [...] In the mean time it will be Absolutely Necessary to Inflict exemplary and Severe Punishments on the Mountains Tribes who have lately exhibited to Sanguinary a Spirit against the Settlers. With this view it is my Intention, as soon as I shall have Ascertained What Tribes Committed the Late Murders and Depredations, to send a strong Detachment of Troops to drive them to a Distance from the Settlements of the White Men, and to Endeavour to take some of them Prisoners in order to be punished for their late atrocious Conduct, so as to Strike them with Terror against Committing Similar Acts of Violence in future. Governor Macquarie to Earl Bathurst. 8th June 1816. [...] Pursuant to this determination and in consequence of various Subsequent Acts of Atrocity being Committed by the Natives in the remote parts of the Settlements, I found it Necessary on the 10th April to Order Three Detachments of the 46th Regiment under the several Commands of Captains Schaw and Wallis, and Lieutenant Dawe of the Corps, to proceed to those Districts most infested and Annoyed by them on the Banks and in the Neighbourhood of the rivers, Nepean, Hawkesbury and Grose, giving them instructions to make as many Prisoners as possible; this Service Occupied a Period of 23 days, during which time the Military Parties very rarely met with any of the Hostile Tribes; the Occurrence of most importance which took place was under Captain Wallis’s direction, who, having Surprized One of the Native Encampments and meeting with some resistance, killed 14 of them and made 5 Prisoners; among the killed there is every reason to believe that Two of the most ferocious and Sanguinary of the Natives were included, some few other Prisoners were taken in the Course of this route and have been lodged in Gaol. This necessary but painful Duty was Conducted by the Officers in Command of the Detachments perfectly in Conformity to the instructions I had furnished them.” https://brigittasummers.com.au/Running-on-Cargo-1 Tue, 29 Oct 2019 01:01:16 +0000 Brigitta Summers https://brigittasummers.com.au/Running-on-Cargo-1 Running on Cargo