Shelterbelts and quaking zones: antipodean gothic in the postcolonial cultural landscape

© 2011 Angel De LatourThis paper is divided into two parts. Part One examines the historical and cultural influences that have led to a re-emergence of the Gothic mode in Antipodean visual culture. It investigates the relationship between the theories of postmodernism and postconialism and their shared or divergent assumptions, motivations and strategies. It analyses the role of art and film in locating and conceptualising the postmodern Antipodean Gothic in the postcolonial landscape, providing a context for the painting-based studio component of the research. Part Two focuses on the theories, concepts and processes involved in producing the paintings for final exhibition. These works are based on a particular interpretation of the Gothic, located in a specific landscape in New Zealand. They deal with boundaries and their disintegration, ‘gaps’ in the shelterbelt, drawing parallels between the postcolonial relationship with Britain and its reflection in the landscape. They also focus on the swamp or quaking zone, the antithesis of the colonial ideal of cleared pastoral land. While the paintings for exhibition have evolved out of and alongside themes discussed in the paper, they also form a self-sufficient body of research that is independent of the text. They are presented in this context as the studio-based contribution to this study of the Antipodean Gothic revival