Did you know I’ve been doing a graduate diploma of writing and literature at Deakin University? 

The unit called “Introduction to Digital Photography” was one of the reasons I bumped from a graduate certificate to a graduate diploma. My intuition was right, of course, and this unit gave me so much more than digital photography skills. 

It also exposed me to the theory of conceptual art which really opened a new portal in my brain. 

Below is one of my assessments.

It is a collection of items that I think are extremely important. I want to share them widely and would love to hear your thoughts and feelings about it. 

The strategy for these images was to take random images of women who have expereinced miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth and neonatal death while they either talk or just be present and to present those images without a bias towards any particular emotional representation. 

The images are quite large files and hard to display digitally. Nor are they phone friendly.
I am sharing them here but I encourage you to look at them on your large screen from this Google Drive folder – download them and connect in deeply.

Typology

In the typology, I made an investigation into feminist perspectives, developing identity and the discussion surrounding craft versus art. 

As a young woman I thought that feminism required me to reject traditionally female pursuits such as cooking and hand crafts. Germaine Greer, author of The Female Eunuch in 1970, espoused women rejecting their embroideries and demanding more from life. 

As a daughter of a Hungarian migrant in Australia, I felt a disconnect from many aspects of Australian culture in the 1980’s. I was essentially raised in a European household with one of my aunts, a lesbian dressmaker and another aunt was an embroiderer. I loved to cook and longed to sew. As I attempted to clarify my sense of identity through my youth, these interests seemed to clash with my serious, feminist inclinations. 

As I matured, I grew to appreciate the anti-capitalist sentiment of modern knitting culture and expressions of craftivism (Buszek, 2011). My exposure to quilted and embroidered pieces such as I do not expect (2002) and Everyone I’ve Ever Slept with 1963-1995 (1995) by Tracey Emin enabled me to reconsider my identity as a feminist and artist.

Questions posed by the conceptual art movement such as the validity of art, who deems it valuable or good and who decides whether it’s art or not, lead me to question the craft versus art debate. In 2025 I can purchase socks with the art of Basquiat embroidered on them. Are they craft, art or are they something else? And who decides? If I knit a garment and I experience the process to be art, will that end as soon as it is worn? If I knit something that is not intended to be worn, does that deem the piece to be art? Does a knitted garment immediately become art if I photograph it with a conceptual art mindset? These are the unresolved revelations from the typology and this unit. 

Nishimuta, M., & Layng, T. V. J. (2021). On the Distinction between the Abstract Tacts Art and Craft: A Concept Analysis. Psychological Record, 71(4), 585–594.

This detailed exploration of the art versus craft debate gives contemporary and experience-based parameters to help contextualise both art and craft.  Definitions are given for both with perspectives from both the viewer and the creator of the works. It reflects history and covers multiple mediums in the art and craft oeuvres. A contemporary, respectful and relevant reading for the debate.

Voices Off: Reflections on Conceptual Art, Art and Language, 2006

This essay assimilates and reviews the Art and Language community and the entire conceptual art movement of that era. It traverses the art community’s debates from modernism, through postmodernism and conceptual art. It delivers a critical overview while sharing comprehensive insights from a contemporary, retrospective angle. Useful for definitions if such things are part of the practice.

Bibliography

Art & Language. (2006). Voices off: Reflections on conceptual art. Critical Inquiry. 33(1).

Art Gallery of New South Wales. (n.d.). I do not expect [Textile work by Tracey Emin, 2002]. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/292.2018/

Buszek, M. E., & Robertson, K. (2011). Introduction. Utopian Studies, 22(2), 197–200. 

Greer, G. (1970). The female eunuch. McGraw-Hill. 

Kokoli, A., & Cherry.D. (2020). Art Into Life : Essays on Tracey Emin. Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

Nishimuta, M., & Layng, T. V. J. (2021). On the Distinction between the Abstract Tacts Art and Craft: A Concept Analysis. Psychological Record, 71(4), 585–594.

Smith, L. L. (2017). Telling stories: performing authenticity in the confessional art of Tracey Emin. Rethinking History, 21(2), 296–309. 

Widewalls Editorial. (n.d.). Inside that Tracey Emin tent of everyone she ever slept with. Widewalls. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/tracey-emin-everyone-i-have-ever-slept-with

Another Conceptual Strategy

Another conceptual strategy intended to capture random images of women who have experienced abortions, miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death while they sat with me for 5 minutes. No questions were asked and women were not required to speak if they did not want to. Living in a regional area, meeting in person wasn’t possible so I chose to photograph my subjects on a Zoom call on my phone (Stokes, 2007). 

The thirty or so images were then narrowed down to twelve per subject and presented in a long strip akin to a time lapse. I also wanted to display the variety of emotions the women traversed relating to their reproductive experience. While editing I attempted to select images in an open and objective way rather than choosing photos with specific emotional displays (Costell and Iverson, 2009). 

Once as I started photographing I realised that I was also visible in the photos. This is a nod to performance artist Marina Abramovic’s work such as Rhythm O (1974) and The Room with the Ocean View (2002) where her own experience creates the work. My shared experience of having had a stillborn baby myself, I am reflected in these women’s stories and presence, figuratively and metaphorically.  

Initially I had considered asking the women to pose as if they were holding their baby. I realised that this was laying my own narrative over the truthful experiences of these women (Costell and Iverson, 2009) and how similar that performative request was to the way our culture expects women to act in these situations. We are allowed to be sad, but only for a certain amount of time. We are allowed to grieve, but there is a set of feelings we are allowed to share which is limited to sadness. In truth, these experiences gave these women a sense of spiritual connection, personal insight, strength, gratitude, relief, anger and more. 

I discussed the women’s connection to these children while capturing the photos. Many women shared that they connect with the souls of their children. They expressed feeling divinely guided by these experiences. I share these as shamanic integrations of the experience (Burello, 2023).

Costello D and Iversen M (2009) ‘Introduction-photography after conceptual art’, Art History, 32(5):825-835.

This is the introductory chapter for a collection of essays and reflections on the expressions of postmodern photography with a conceptual art leaning. The essays merge art history and art criticism reflecting on photographic works from 1960 to now. The chapter itself delivers a clear and comprehensive summary of many conceptual art debates and perspectives. 

Burello, A. (2023). Art as spirituality: The paradigmatic case of Marina Abramović. Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 13(1), 5–19.

This essay explores the non-religious, spiritual dimension of art through analysis of Marina Abramovic’s life and work. It draws from her autobiography, social commentary and body of work. It details Abramovic’s perspectives on the human experience including pain, transcendence and suffering. Abramovic is positioned as a modern day shaman and art as a way humans can access heightened states.

Bibliography

Burello, A. (2023). Art as spirituality: The paradigmatic case of Marina Abramović. Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 13(1), 5–19.

Costello D and Iversen M (2009) ‘Introduction-photography after conceptual art’, Art History, 32(5):825-835.

Guggenheim Museum. (n.d.). Rhythm 0 by Marina Abramović. https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5177

Marina Abramović Institute. (2008). Marina Abramovic on “House with the Ocean View” [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/2J4J0oGuK30

Stokes P (2007) ‘Using constraints to generate and sustain novelty’, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 1(2):107-113.

Richards, M. (2018). Marina Abramovic. Routledge.