Art as an experience and a political act

This work examines the work of Aboriginal Australian artist Dr Pamela Croft (DVA) and her use of bothways methodology which draws on both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ways of seeing the world, exploring relationships, connections and disjunctions and is additionally a site of reconciliation, a tool for healing, an educational experience and a political act. In her utilisation of both ways she presents her individual story and the collective story of Aboriginal peoples. In this her art practice exposes multiple layers of the experiences and impacts of trauma of colonisation and displacement, questions and concepts of identity and whiteness, and personal and collective stories and cultural interpretations. Croft’s works share and reveal secrets and impart knowledge and experiences and hence give power by the reclaiming of individual and communal stories and retelling history using subjugated knowledge. Her works fall into the general practice of intermedia and installation and are offered as an educational experience and as a political act.