The Affective Ground

The Affective Ground explores how drawing may be used as a model to have a cross-cultural dialogue about space, place and spirituality between artists in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The artist, Jan Hogan, discusses the process and development of her art practice on the site of Gundaroo Common in rural Australia and how it responds to propositions seen in the work of Indigenous Australian artists. She proposes that the materiality and visual understanding of these artists develops in the viewer empathy for place alongside an acknowledgement of the displacements that have occurred in contemporary Australian society. This is an invitation to others to develop a new and more sensitive relationship to place, that acknowledges Indigenous presence and creates a commitment and responsibility to the place we live in.