Anti-monument to the Immemorial

Research Catalogue, Jessie Stanley
Masters of Art in Public Space, RMIT University 2018

Abstract:
Monuments typify human habitation of place, memorialising ideologies of the prevailing power from moments in time. In recent decades, their form has undergone a revolution. Along with their transformation from the heavy permanence of monumentality, to the temporality of anti-monumental form — subject matter has also diametrically shifted from representing the state, to the marginalised. My practice-based research explores further the anti-monuments’ potential for social activism — to expand memorialisation beyond a human-centric narrative, to acknowledge the immemorial forces that shape place. An iterative creative process informs the major body of site-responsive works Human/Nature undertaken as Artist in Residence at Kyneton Botanic Gardens, presented at Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial 2018. Drawing on the sites deep time environmental and ideological origins as transformative forces, I created a series of anti-monuments: activating public space as an experimental laboratory to explore and discover the sublime context of our existence.

Keywords:
Place
Human-nature relationship
Social activism
Monument/anti-monument
Sublime