Artists who work to a satirical, political or moral theme believe their art can contribute in some way to consciousness raising and change. With an awareness of their intrinsic capacity to touch people, artists can use their exhibited work to challenge, usurp and alter the status quo. My artwork is concerned with highlighting Eurocentric or ‘white’ bias embedded in Australian society and exposing its impact on others.

Peggy McIntosh argues that being white “… is an invisible knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, code books, passports, visas, compass, emergency gear and blank cheques.”1 The term “Whiteness” refers to the historical, social, political and cultural organisation which shapes white people’s lives and informs a position of power and dominance.2 Through my work I hope to contribute to greater community awareness and ultimately positive social change by increasing awareness of the extent these biases encroach on our thinking and our lives.

Lucy Lippard suggests:
“Artists alone can’t change the world. Neither can anybody else, alone. But we can choose to be part of the world that is changing. There is no reason why visual arts should not be able to reflect the social concerns of our day as naturally as novels, plays and music …” 3

As my work is intended to critique the power relations within mainstream Australian society, the artworks are directed as much to the general public as they are to an art audience. This factor significantly influenced the style of my work, resulting in a more didactic and unambiguous figurative representation. Stereotypes have also been utilised to aid in communicating this agenda. Stereotypes have routinely functioned within media imagery and language to reinforce and maintain white power.4 These stereotypes have become an instantly recognisable visual language on which movie characters are based and advertised products promoted. By employing the very language that exploits and reinscribes a dominant white view through my work I am more able to expose and usurp the operation of power. However, this approach is fraught with dangers by increasing the risk of restating and perpetuating typecast images and being misread by some viewers. Whilst mindful of the potential to offend viewers of all races, my approach aimed to use cultural stereotypes to criticise “the very citadels of power”5. Rather than avoiding such an approach, I chose to directly tackle the inherent difficulties of working with images of race and the prospective audience for which this work was intended.6

For example, In My Mind, Under My Skin and the Places In Between, critiques the infiltration and pervasive penetration of white bias into the intimate private spheres of many non-whites’ lives, their psyche and the social spaces in which they live. This incursion contributes to undermining a positive self esteem and identity by situating the non white individual as the ‘other’ and situating the white person and their experience as the ‘norm’. 7

Many of the art works amplify comments made by women from non-white backgrounds living in Australia who were interviewed as part of a PhD research project at Southern Cross University (2003–2007). This research examined the effects of the over-representation of idealised images of Caucasian women on non-Caucasian women living in Australia. Results revealed the interviewees perceived a negative bias against non-whites through media imagery and visual representations, facilitated through the use of digital manipulation, stereotyping, and physical exclusion and under-representation of non-white women.

Above image: Mirror Mirror, 2006, h.69cm, w.59cm, d.33cm

They also noted an over-representation of idealised white women in media imagery. This perception was supported by research undertaken by Dianne Sweeney (2001) which documents the over-representation of ‘white’ women on the front cover of two Australian women’s magazines, Marie Claire and Cleo, between September 1995 and October 2000. Sweeney analysed the race of 398 cover-models and found 95.5 percent of Cleo models and 96 percent of Marie Claire models could “be judged to be” white [Caucasian].8 This was found to be unrepresentative of the multiracial mix within the Australian population which, according to the 1996 Census, found 23.3 percent of the population were overseas-born residents. 9
In addition to biased media representations, interviewees identified bias in the design, manufacturing and promotion of particular consumer products. These included clothes design, sunglasses and makeup designed for a European body shape and physical structure. These products reinforced many non-whites’ sense of having alien status within the Australian community and highlighted a general attitude which failed to consider or appreciate variations in physical features.
Interviewees also revealed that various components of women’s bodies such as skin colour, hair texture, body size and shape, eye and nose shape were charged with meaning. Some participants first experienced negative stereotyping of body components by certain communities in their country of origin but found this was reinforced upon migrating to Australia where idealised white body images dominate despite multiculturalism.

The topic of a social skin colour hierarchy is explored in works such as Whitewashed and Invisible. Invisible responds to comments by an Aboriginal participant who suggested it was rare to find Aboriginal women in beauty pageants because Aboriginal features diverged ‘too far’ from the European defined parameters of beauty. This piece comments on their omission from societal images of beauty and through the use of an oppositional image in the form of an Aboriginal beauty pageant winner; I query their absence from this forum. The Makeover and Bad Hair Day deal with body image concerns resulting from the idealisation of the European woman as the universal model of ideal beauty.

The Makeover critiques the brutality involved in many surgical cosmetic procedures. Such surgical intervention is conveyed by the woman from Middle Eastern heritage who is attempting to hammer a nail into her racially specific nose. Rhinoplasty is a popular procedure among Middle Eastern women who desire to change the size and shape of their nose, which they perceive to be too large in comparison to the ideal.10 Bad Hair Day reveals the preoccupation with straightening frizzy hair, particularly popular among many African women. This frequently involves the application of harsh chemicals to achieve a straighter appearance.

Mirror Mirror comments on the over-representation of idealised images of European women that non-whites are confronted with on a daily basis. Dyer suggests, “White people create the dominant images in the world and don’t quite see that they create the world in their image.”11 This piece also responds to comments made by a Chinese participant who, in her mind’s eye, perceives herself to be European having blonde hair and blue eyes, often completely forgetting she has an Asian appearance until being abruptly reminded by a reflection in a mirror or shop front window.

The way in which whiteness installs itself as the dominant world view, the standard from which everything else is judged and which has infiltrated every strata of life has been highlighted by the women interviewed. Listening to and sharing the experiences of those voices marginalised by these biases provided the personal impetus and material to inform this body of work which aspires to social change and believes in the possibility that through the arts we might shake loose entrenched attitudes and forge alternative ways of being.12 The personal journey accompanying this research has been both challenging and enriching. Throughout this journey I have been forced to confront my own white blindness, and acknowledge that the privileges I enjoy as a white woman result from this cultural domination and they have been achieved at the expense of others. Unearthing the mechanisms for its maintenance will hopefully assist in removing the white blindfold enveloping my own blinkered vision. The process of self reflexivity attempts to find a space within the gaps; to create room for different ways of thinking, seeing and hoping. As Chambers recounts: “Traversing into the border country, I look into a potentially further space: the possibility of another place, another world, another future,” 13 one which will hopefully embrace diversity and acknowledge the damaging legacy of a Eurocentric heritage.

In My Mind, Under My Skin and the Places In Between, 2006, h.84cm, w.50cm, d.50cm