à la dérive

The title of this paper refers to a sense of being in drift. The French term à la dérive seemed appropriate to adopt because the work was conceived and made in France, and the meaning of it umbrellas the ideas I have attempted to explore in my MFA. à la dérive is comprised of two parts. Firstly, the paper presents an investigation of several ideas and concerns revolving around the broad notion of the concept 'place'. In this paper, the concept of 'place' addresses a physical definition of belonging that exists within a specific cultural framework. I discuss Marc Augé's theory of place in relation to Nikos Papastergiadis' idea of the absence of it through diaspora. Importantly the relevance of these ideas to my creative interests stem from my personal history and dual nationality (Polish-Australian) as well as the notion of absence and presence in the concept 'place'. Secondly, the paper then discusses these theories in relation to the various works I have produced over the past two and a half years, including photographs, photo mural installations, collected objects, prints and drawings. Here I refer directly to artists including Tacita Dean, Simryn Gill, Peter Bialobrzeski and Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di biciclette. These artists inspire and provoke me to consider why I make work, what influences have defined my practice and why I respond to particular places. It has been important to identify these interests in order to learn from what has always been an intuitive art making process. I am drawn to how each artist considers aspects of place, time, history, nostalgia and temporality. I conclude by discussing three projects that comprise my MFA practical work: Making Traces (2007), in (and against) time (2009) and à la dérive (2009)