National Taiwan Normal University

Institute of Art History

Theoretical and Critical Studies of Contemporary
Photomedia Art in the Asia-Pacific
Winter, 2020
2022/01/25

Photomedia Studies of Colonial Legacies in Australia and Taiwan

Ifan Chen 陳羿帆

60867013T
Western Art History
Fall Semester
marni6@gmail.com
Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3-4
2. State of Research 4
3. Historical Background 4-7
4. Analysis of A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk and Cold Chain
4.1 A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the Zeewijk 7-9
4.2 Cold Chain. 9-12
5. Conclusion 12-13
6. Bibliography 14

Appendix: Illustrations 15-22

1. Introduction
It seems that Drew Pettifer and Hou I-Ting are two totally irreverent and divergent visual
artists, but both of them are interested in Australian and Taiwanese colonial legacies
distinctively. Pettifer is Australian, he was born in Shepparton, Victoria in 1980, and now
lives and works between Kyabram and Naarm (Melbourne), Victoria. He graduated from
University of Melbourne with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in 2006, he gained his master
degree in Arts Management from RMIT Graduate Certificate in Visual Arts in 2009, and he
obtained a Ph.D. degree in Fine Art (Photography) from Monash University in 2017.1 On the
other hand, Hou I-Ting is Taiwanese, she was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1979. She
currently lives and works in Taipei. She received a degree from the Taipei National
University of the Arts, and later obtained an MFA degree in plastic arts at the Tainan
National University of the Arts.2
From time to time, Pettifer also works as an independent curator and writer. He is not
only an artist but also academic. He currently works as the Program Manager of the Bachelor
of Arts Program at RMIT University. His work is held in various collections, including the
National Gallery of Victoria, Monash Gallery of Art, and Shepparton Art Museum, as well as
private collections nationally and internationally. Unlike Pettifer’s diverse career
backgrounds, Hou is a full-time artist, and she devotes her time to creating art that converse
with a wide range of viewers. Her works of art are collected by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum,
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Kuandu Museum
of Fine Arts, White Rabbit Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, and Gallery of Modern Art.3
In general, Pettifer creates art with photography, videos, installation, and performance,
and he utterly enjoys exploring subjects, such as human intimacy, gender issue, sexual power,
the archive, and social politics. In his recent work, A Sorrowful Act: The Wreck of the
Zeewijk, which was exhibited at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery in 2020, he took a full
historical approach and used photography, videos, and installation to uncover probably the
first Australia’s European queer incident in 1727. The exhibition raised the awareness of
LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, queer/questioning, intersex, and
allied/asexual), paid respects to the victims, and encouraged people to appreciate the diversity
of our society.

1
http://drewpettifer.com/Recent/Home-Page
2
https://tcaaarchive.org/artist/13170/
3
https://www.tkgplus.com/en/artists/35-/biography/
 Some of Hou’s works of art mainly involve in videos and performance, she also adds
embroidery on black and white archive images. With the colorful and delicate embroidery
designs on archive images, they not only provide brand new visual experience but also make
viewers reconnect with Japanese colonial history and wonder how females lived through the
Japanese colonial period. Her work, Cold Chain, which was exhibited at Taipei Fine Arts
Museum (TFAM) in 2019, shows her strong interests in contrasting the past and present state
of the female workforce under the socio-economic system, exploring the constant changing
relationship between body and image through time. The embroidered images reflect her
studies of collective labor work in Japanese colonial society in the past, art museums, and art
galleries at the present time.