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Lisa French, Media Arts, Deakin University, Rusden Campus
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Critic Robert Nelson has observed that the beach has status as a symbol of Australian nationhood, a great cultural icon representing family values, love of the outdoors, appreciation of space and natural beauty, sport and relaxation. It is a symbol of democracy, health, and symbolically an egalitarian place, common property, where (in theory) no one can be excluded. Max Dupain's photograph Sunbaker (1937) is an iconic, mythic and monumental representation of Australians and the beach (white, male, bronzed). Dupain's Sunbaker is currently used by Qantas, despite the reductive characterisation of national identity, and appears with the slogan: 'The Spirit of Australia'. Artists such as Anne Zahalka have challenged masculinist assumptions underlying the stereotypes of Australian culture; for example her own 1989 version of Sunbaker (featuring a red-headed woman). Other artists have reflected on the significance of the beach to Australian culture, and the way in which representations of the beach have operated to exclude and 'Other.' Through an examination of the work of various photographers and filmmakers, this paper considers ways in which the beach, which was historically the domain of the white, bronzed male, has been reclaimed for those 'Others'- women, gays, immigrants, and multicultural Australia.
