Anamorphosis as colonial encounter: the case of Augustus Earle. Issue 2 (3rd April 2022) - Broadfoot, Keith
ABSTRACT: Perspective dominates the writing on colonial art. Conceptualized as a way of seeing that inherently supports the processes of colonial conquest and control, its use in colonial art is routinely linked to an overseeing and all-powerful 'colonial gaze'. It is surprising, then, that upon return to the supposed source of this idea, the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, you will find that he continually associates the 'gaze' not with perspective but anamorphosis. Undertaking a close study of several inter-related Australian works by the British travel artist, Augustus Earle, in this article I seek to look again at colonial art by placing perspective to one side. In shifting the focus from perspective to anamorphosis, I will be arguing for the need to consider another, often neglected and overlooked aspect to the ideology of the colonial encounter, one based on what Slavoj Žižek paradoxically refers to as a 'pre-ideological enjoyment structured in fantasy'.