Pop Tasmanian gothic : a studio-based exploration of place characterised by the Tasmanian gothic and the tourist experience

My practice-led research project investigates how artistic practice brings new understanding to, and provides critical perspectives on, the relationship the tourist has to the places they visit. For exploration purposes, I used the lens of a fantasy Tasmanian holiday, played out in elaborate sets from my Melbourne studio. In this scenario, I used a fictional character, 'the tourist', to reveal my ambivalent connection with Tasmania. I inserted this character into pastiched versions of Tasmanian Gothic tropes and more recent tourism marketing tropes, known as Pop Goth. My key research question is: how do forms of artistic practice, including roleplay of touristic cliche, stereotype, pastiche and multi-media studio practice, reflect a changing Tasmanian identity characterised by Pop Tasmanian Gothic? Due to constraints brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, my research also considers the impact of travel restrictions asking how we might tour when we can't travel and what a studio-based imaginative tour might reveal. My research is informed by personal observations as an expat Tasmanian who, over a decade of travelling back and forth from Melbourne, observed the State's emergence as a cultural tourist destination featuring the Tasmanian Gothic as a dominant branding strategy which I discuss as Pop Tasmanian Gothic. My overarching methodology was to gather source material for investigation in the studio by adopting the 'role' of the tourist. This involved combining and adapting the stages of touristic activity identified by sociologists Clawson and Knetsch to the creative process. These stages are anticipation, travel, experience and recollection (as cited in Pearce, 2005, p. 9). Within the tourist methodology, I use camp and pastiche as overarching methods to represent my personal connection to place. Supported by the work of Susan Sontag, Christopher Isherwood and Cindy Sherman, I argue that camp provides a meaningful platform to investigate a shifting perception of place through humour and roleplay. By adopting Richard Dyer's definition of pastiche, I explore how copying and combining in an expansive platform of tropes can express an emotional connection to place. I explore how these tropes can co-exist in one space through scenography, painting and animation. In my research, I contextualise Pop Tasmanian Gothic visual art through a range of artists including William Piguenit, Jane Burton, Tom O'Hern and Robert O'Connor. I discuss my use of scenography through the work of Tracy Moffatt and Jacqui Stockdale and the free-standing cut-out through David Noonan. Animation is examined with reference to Heath Franco and Heather and Ivan Morison. The final output for this project is a multi-media installation-based exhibition consisting of a digital animation, paintings, and free-standing sculptural cut-outs. This results in a cacophony of motifs that circulate between and around each other in a dimly lit immersive spectacle. The work provides an opportunity to reflect on the emergent tropes of Pop Tasmanian Gothic in visual art and in the Tasmanian Gothic at large, identifying new tropes that are relevant in a contemporary context, disclosing new perceptions and critical perspectives of the relationship to place held by the tourist as I reconcile my own attachments, memories and associations to Tasmania.