Exegesis: (Is there) Sympathy for the devil? Practice-led studio research into contemporary dingo imaginings

This body of work investigates the terse relations between humans, dingoes and wild dogs in southeast Australia. The practice-led studio research is underpinned by the dissertation, which traces the colonial visual representations of the Australian native dog during the first century of European settlement. The studio research is informed by primary field research involving consultation with individuals and agencies affected by dingoes and wild dogs in interface zones, where private and government managed lands intersect. The studio research amplifies the influences of early perceptions on contemporary attitudes towards dingoes. It follows a trajectory of the disappearing dingo in its representational form, to its implied remnant presence within the farmers' psyche. Early studio work explored a range of materials and practices, encompassing sculptural and drawing strategies, and took its cue from a macabre ritual of animal shaming in remote regional Australia, the so-called 'dog trees', that display the carcasses of dingoes and wild dogs. The studio work has culminated in a large-scale sculptural installation, designed to pare back the visual language to its essential elements. This work incorporates the dissolution of the dingo form, which becomes absorbed into the personal objects embedded into the farmers' private territory. The poetic objects that form the final sculptural work presented for examination, Lines of desire, become metaphors for the dingo's capacity to survive and unsettle the rural subconscious.