Peopling landscapes through art

Abstract

Visual art is often integral to environmental history and is used not only as a starting point for research but often is the historical artefact itself. Many environmental historians use visual art references in their work and there are accomplished artists and photographers who are also environmental historians. This article is about the nexus between artistic practice and environmental histories and is about how I use that to people landscape through art. I will discuss, by focussing on four examples, how my pioneering interdisciplinary art and environment projects were driven by a field work methodology which is socially inclusive and broad ranging across land-systems. There is a scarcity of cultural, scientific and historical material about the rangelands and desert regions of Australia where I have undertaken these projects and for a number of these places it is the first time any visual or written documentation has been recorded, making them valuable environmental history documents. This is especially true for the Indigenous stories and images recorded in my co-edited publications and makes them rare Environmental history documents which reveal the connections of people and landscapes through the deep time of Australia's history. They also reveal its more recent histories since second settler societies arrived in Australia and ask questions about its future. Knowledge is to be gained from these stories and images and likewise my own paintings, which are an aesthetic evaluation of those landscapes and contribute to our knowledge and understanding of people, landscapes and their histories.