The art of walking in Australian contemporary practice

This thesis explores walking as a dynamic and vital physical practice in the production of contemporary Australian visual art. In the tradition of Charles Baudelaire's evocation of the flâneur as adapted by Walter Benjamin and late twentieth-century artists, the research explores two aspects of the intersection of art and walking in an urban context; it critically evaluates artistic output created as a consequence of the performative act of walking; and it examines visual art that involves walking as its major component. The question that unites these two fields of inquiry and addresses a gap in the current knowledge is one that asks how the immediate physical experience of walking has reinvigorated the artistic creative process. An interdisciplinary critical analysis of specific art practices focuses on three contemporary Australian artists. Although they work in various media and via a broad choice of subjects, Noel McKenna, Daniel Crooks and Lauren Brincat have each produced work that is a consequence of walking. Each employs a different mode of walking practice or performance. The thesis contends that the links between art and walking practices play an increasingly important role in Australian contemporary art, and reveals the broader implications of this connection.