VALERIE KEENAN
"RESPONSIBLE HERITAGE: WRITING BACK TO WILLIE"

This final presentation by visual artist Valerie Keenan provides a summation of her PhD dissertation Responsible Heritage: Writing back to Willie and exhibition a CURIOUS Cabinet currently on display at The Gallery, University of Southern Queensland.

This response to the hand written letters of her great uncle William Henry (1875-1906) draws on a mix of disciplines such as visual studies, art history, psychology, ethnography, feminism, cultural studies, post-colonialism, history and literary studies in order to allow a larger and more flexible framework to focus her responses to Will’s words. Valerie gathers together the ‘bric a brac’ of her arts practice and theoretical analysis to demonstrate the visual and discursive structure of her metaphoric ‘cabinet of curiosities’. The paper reflects on influences, imagination and creation, words and images, resources and parameters, historical resonances, theoretical analysis and the journey that is nearing its end.

VALERIE KEENAN is the first practice led Visual Arts PhD to submit at the University of Southern Queensland. Valerie's exhibition, a CURIOUS Cabinet: A visual response to the letters of William Henry (1876-1907), can be seen at USQ Arts Gallery until July 23.