Maladroit simulations: or the art of not letting the truth get in the way of a good story

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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/197301

Title: Maladroit simulations: or the art of not letting the truth get in the way of a good story
Author(s): Tofts, Darren
Abstract: Milne's fascination with the melodramatic properties of Australian political history underwrites his understanding of myth as something that is larger than life, a form of camp sensibility, a narrative in excess of the ordinary, potentially sublime but at the same time, in the artist's words, 'a little bit sad'. This technique of seeing a molehill in a mountain has been fruitfully explored in three series, 'Dreams of the Skull', 'Brief Shining Moment', 'Running Dogs' and 'The New Australia'. His approach to the interface between history and myth presumes that truth in photography is never fixed, unproblematic or beyond dispute or negotiation. The notion of the epiphany is the rhetorical lens through which he views and constructs cathartic moments or turning points in the narratives of his subjects.
Publication type: Book chapter
Research centre: Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences
Source: Beautiful lies: notes towards a history of Australia / Peter Gordon Milne (ed.),
Publication year: 2011
Keyword(s): Artworks; Photography
Publisher: T & G Publishing
ISBN: 9780977579075, 0977579077
Publisher URL: http://www.qcp.org.au/publications/t-g-publications
Publisher URL: http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&vid=ISBN9780977579075
Peer reviewed