Cirrus@Austlit

Title:

The Arousal

Alternative Title:

Date of production:

1987

Series:

From 'Homefires burn in the heartland II'

Series Date:

1987

Medium:

Gelatin silver photograph

Technique:

Photomontage

Edition:

Catalogue raisonne:

Dimensions:

Image 81.5 x 133.0 cm

Frame: 92.5 x 144.0 cm

Inscriptions:

Provenance:

Credit line:

Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 1990

Accession no:

1990.08

Copyright line:

Descriptive Text:

Associate professor Jay Younger is a contemporary Brisbane-based artist, curator and lecturer who has been committed to artistic practice in Queensland since the mid 1980s. Her early creative work focused on photography, installations and performance which had edgy feminist and socio-political content and provocative ideological intentions. More recently, Younger has specialized in significant public art projects and site-specific installations which integrate art and architecture practice. 'The Arousal' (1987) is representative of her earlier work in photography and performance. Together, Younger's gelatin silver photographs 'The Drift' and 'The Arousal' from the series 'Homefires Burn in the Heartland' I and II established motifs and themes that were central to her artistic practice for the next decade.

This series was initially created for a group touring exhibition entitled 'Anywhere' which was driven by a collaborative effort arising from Queensland Artworkers Alliance artists. 'Anywhere' was a direct response to Max Dupain's review of 'Occlusion' (the first exhibition of Queensland contemporary photography at the Australian Centre for Photography in 1986). In his critique 'Realism shut out of Queensland scenes', Dupain identified a need for Queensland photographers to focus less on urban 'universal states of mind' and more on capturing the rural homogeneity of Queenslanders and their close relationship to the earth. Although the photomontaged images were taken within a ten kilometre radius of Brisbane, Younger's 'Homefires Burn in the Heartland' series recreates the generic folk history of 'The Last Frontier' in the context of an uncivilized and brutal Queensland wilderness.

In 'The Arousal', Younger's use of a gelatin silver photographic medium evokes a sense of history as it captures the nostalgic aura that is unique to early photographic portraits. Echoes of romantic colonial visions are also revealed through the staged but sensual use of imagery (e.g., unsophisticated

rustic furniture, lighting, clothing). By hinting at the coexistence of distinct temporalities and spatialities, 'The Arousal' pays homage to past generations of women who have tended the hearth and home.

However, the collaged photowork also invokes a sense of menace and lurking danger through the use of shadowed lighting and the unusual obliquely cropped, yet fluid, construction of space. Outside the open door of a simple rural cabin, the bright light from the distant moon appears to beckon a young woman away from her position at a solid timber table. Seated at the opposite end of the table is a shadowy older male - presumably her father - who is only partially illuminated by the light of a kerosene lantern and the roaring blaze of a log fire in the hearth.

Aroused by the beauty of the moon, the young woman is awakened to unimagined possibilities, mysteries, opportunities, and destinies outside the cabin, her home. Yet the scene also elicits an awareness of the potential dangers of the wild frontier - the outside world away from home - as the woman hesitates almost at the threshold of the cabin. The powerful narrative evoked in 'The Arousal' is a story about choice as the young woman becomes aware of the opposing tensions between the security, familiarity and stasis of the home and the emancipation, mobility and risks of leaving home. is the woman fleeing? Fleeing from what? or is she actively seeking another destiny? A better destiny? As voyeur's to the scene, we are granted a fleeting opportunity to observe the drama unfold but an absence of mutual gaze, an inability to clearly know what the young woman sees, leads to a sense of ambiguity and displacement.

Although the woman's uncertainty may reflect her private fears and anxieties, Younger's imagery depicts how these feelings are linked to significant social and political forces that, in fact, act to erode choice and magnify powerlessness. Underpinned by a feminist discourse, these themes of female identity, stereotypes, representation, power and position relationships recur in Younger's other works of this time (e.g., 'The Tragic Romance' series, 1986; 'The Blue Kingdom', 1987) as well as in later works (e.g., 'Escape from the Empty Disco', 1993; 'Levitation: Dissolving Old Words that Live Under the Breath', 1994; 'Big Wig & Charger: A Spectacle of Occupation and Execution', 1995).

Bibliography:

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Bolt, B. (2003). Jay Younger: The politics of exuberance. RealTime, 53, p.27.

Associate Professor Jay Younger. (2014). Retrieved on 24th March 2014, from http://www.griffith.edu.au/visual-creative-arts/queensland-college-art/staff/associate-professor-jay-younger.

Chadwick, W. 92010). The enduring legacy of feminism. In W. Chadwick (Ed.), Women. Art and Society (pp. 496-414). Thames & Hudson: London.

Engberg, J. (2002). Glamour Puss: Jay Younger's Heteroglossia, or how I became a good bad girl. In S. Follent (Ed.), Jay Younger: Glare (pp.30-35). University Art Museum, The University of Queensland: Brisbane.

Hoffman, I. (2003). Is art built-in built out? A public debate. Artlink, 23(2), 42-45.

Hollows, J. (2006). Can i go home yet? Feminism, post-feminism and domesticity. In J. Hollows & R. Moseley (Eds.) Feminism in Popular Culture (pp.97-118). Berg: Oxford.

Jackson, B. (2002). Finding our way into a culture. In S. Follent (Ed.), Jay Younger: Glare (pp. 7-14). University Art Museum, The University of Queensland: Brisbane.

Machan, K. (2003). New media art in Brisbane. Artlink, 23(2), 62-64.

Martin-Chew, L. (2003). The artists. Artlink, 23(2), 56-59.

Peers, J. (2000). Unchain my art. Artlink, 20(4), 12-15.

Younger, J. (2002). Descriptions. In S. Follent (Ed.), Jay Younger: Glare. University Art Museum, The University of Queensland: Brisbane.

Younger, J. (2014). Jay Younger. Retrieved on 26th March 2014, from http://jayyounger.com.

Younger, J. J. A. (2011). Critically engaged permanent Public Art in the context of Art Built-in (1999-2006). Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. Retrieved on 24th April 2014, from http://www.primoa.library.unsw.edu.au/primo_library/libweb/action/search.