Breasts, Bodies, Art: Central Desert Women’s Paintings and the Politics of the Aesthetic Encounter

Abstract

to the dominant interpretation of these paintings as representations of 'country'-cartographic 'maps' of the landscape, narratives of Dreaming Ancestors, flora, fauna, species-my argument is that these works bespeak a particular breasted experience and expression, a cultural way of doing and being in the world; what I want to call a breasted ontology. This breasted ontology is literally manifest in the ways in which these paintings are produced and, in turn, experienced by the viewer. That is, these works arguably engender a bodily relation between viewer and image. This viewing relation is not a matter of a viewing subject who, kept at a distance, comprehends an object of ocular focus and vision. Rather, this relation instead is one in which the viewer relinquishes her sense of separateness from the canvas; where a certain coming-into-being in relation to the painting occurs. One does not so much know these works cognitively as lose oneself in them. Through viewing these works, as it were, one becomes vulnerable to their sensibilities in so far as they incite an enmeshment, an enfolding, and encapturing, even in their materiality.

Rethinking the Politics of Creativity: Posthumanism, Indigeneity, and Creativity Beyond the Western Anthropocene

“…In White perspectives on Indigenous onto-epistemology, Jennifer Biddle (2006) detailed similar performative practices of Walpiri women to illustrate the body–ground relationality:The dance of yawulyu itself is performed precisely to emphasise this weight and fall of the breast. A certain slow-speed jump forward is made where the feet don’t actually leave the ground and yet manage to slowly, measurably, compel the dancer forward .…”

“…In White perspectives on Indigenous onto-epistemology, Jennifer Biddle (2006) detailed similar performative practices of Walpiri women to illustrate the body-ground relationality:…”

From Scar Trees to a ‘Bouquet of Words’: Aboriginal Text is Everywhere

“…19 Jennifer Biddle and Erin Manning also discuss the contemporary artistic production of Petyarre, along with Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Dorothy Napangardi, in this collection. 20 In both articles, these authors challenge the readers of the texts produced by these Aboriginal women, and offer a new exploration of the way that their art can be understood. In Biddle's piece, she argues that rather than the dominant interpretation of these women's paintings as representations of maps of 'country' or Dreaming narratives, there is a 'breasted ontology' informing their creation, 'a cultural way of doing and being in the world' which 'literally manifest in the ways in which these paintings are produced and, in turn, are experienced by the viewer'.…”

“…In Biddle's piece, she argues that rather than the dominant interpretation of these women's paintings as representations of maps of 'country' or Dreaming narratives, there is a 'breasted ontology' informing their creation, 'a cultural way of doing and being in the world' which 'literally manifest in the ways in which these paintings are produced and, in turn, are experienced by the viewer'. 21 Concerned with how these artworks are experienced by viewers outside the communities that women belong to, she argues these works 'engender a bodily relation between viewer and image' and that this relation is 'one in which the viewer relinquishes her sense of separateness from the canvas, where a certain coming-into-being in relation to the painting occurs', 22 Rather than just receiving, viewing, or reading the text, Biddle sees an 'intercultural encounter' which is experienced both bodily and temporally. Manning likewise sees the relationship between the artistic text and viewer as a type of intercultural encounter where, if the viewer wishes to engage these artworks, then they must recognise and employ alternative methods to begin that engagement.…”

Indigenous Cultural Studies: Intersections Between Cultural Studies and Indigenous Studies

“…Where Ferrell's awkward body is under the gaze, Biddle talks of an entirely different corporeality, an embodied way of being that is 'otherwise at risk'. 66 In ritual performances, Biddle shows, Warlpiri women bear marks and designs that serve to highlight the size, weight, movement, and, specifically, the fall of the breast. These painted-up breasts repeat an initial ancestral imprinting of country, the Dreaming Ancestors' secretions and remains forming the previously unmarked landscape.…”