Focus and Scope

Focus

The Journal of Melanesia Visual Art aims to:

  1. Provide a rigorous academic platform for the documentation, analysis, and theorization of visual art and visual culture in Melanesia.

  2. Strengthen dialogue between artists, scholars, curators, educators, and Indigenous communities, foregrounding Melanesian perspectives and epistemologies.

  3. Support the preservation, revitalisation, and innovation of Melanesian visual traditions, symbols, motifs, and material practices in local, regional, and global contexts.

  4. Promote decolonial, critical, and community-engaged approaches to the study and practice of art and visual culture in Melanesia.

  5. Encourage comparative and cross-regional research that situates Melanesian visual art within wider debates in contemporary art, Indigenous studies, and cultural studies.

  6. Contribute to policy and practice in art education, cultural heritage management, and creative industries related to Melanesian visual arts.

Scope

The Journal of Melanesia Visual Art welcomes contributions on (but not limited to) the following themes:

  • Visual art practices in Melanesia
    Painting, drawing, sculpture, carving, weaving and textiles, body art and tattoo, ceramics, jewellery, installation, performance art, and other material practices.

  • Contemporary and traditional Indigenous arts
    Negotiations between tradition and modernity; continuity and change in Indigenous visual languages; ceremonial and sacred arts; customary objects and their contemporary reinterpretations.

  • Visual culture, media, and technology
    Photography, film, video, animation, digital and new media art, social media images, gaming, and virtual environments that relate to Melanesian experiences and imaginaries.

  • Art history, theory, and criticism
    Historical trajectories of Melanesian art; art historiography; visual analysis; critical, postcolonial, and decolonial theories; iconography and symbolism.

  • Curatorial and museum practices
    Exhibition and collection practices; gallery and museum studies; community-based and participatory curation; restitution, repatriation, and visual sovereignty.

  • Community-based and participatory arts
    Arts-based research; socially engaged and collaborative art; visual art for community development, advocacy, and empowerment in Melanesian contexts.

  • Art education and pedagogy
    Visual art education in schools, communities, and higher education; curriculum development; Indigenous pedagogies; transmission of artistic skills and knowledge.

  • Creative industries and cultural policy
    Cultural economies of Melanesian visual arts; creative entrepreneurship; festivals and biennales; tourism and cultural branding; intellectual property and cultural policy.

  • Intersections with identity, environment, and belief
    Visual representations of gender, youth, sexuality, religion, spirituality, land and sea, climate change, migration, and Melanesian diasporic identities.

  • Reviews and visual essays
    Critical reviews of exhibitions, festivals, and books; visual essays that combine images and texts to explore Melanesian visual art and culture.