Professorial Lecture Series

"The Paphos Theatre, Cyprus: conjunctions of art and archaeology"
Professor Diana Wood Conroy

Wednesday 22nd August 2007 (12:30-1:30pm), Location: 20.2

If you missed this lecture - please note recordings are available

How might an understanding of the ancient Mediterranean past give contemporary artists in Australia new imaginative insights?

Artists from the University of Wollongong and archaeologists from the University of Sydney have worked together at the excavation of a Greco-Roman theatre in Paphos, Cyprus from 1996 to 2006. Staff and students of the Faculty of Creative Arts, with Diana Wood Conroy, have participated in the University of Sydney's Paphos Theatre archaeological team in Cyprus directed by Professor Richard Green.
The theatre in antiquity brought together all the arts (architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry, music, song, drama) as the central point of communication and ritual. This lecture explores the intersections of art and archaeology through the understanding of material cultures between Cyprus and Australia. The discussion emphasises the central focus of experimental art making, especially in textiles, drawing and photography and its links to wider theoretical issues in the scholarly research field of archaeology and art history. The Paphos Theatre project in Creative Arts enlarges the developing understanding of art as 'research' in the university.

The UOW Cyprus excavation team includes (left to right) Mr Brogan Bunt, Professor Diana Wood Conroy, Amanda Hodder, Cameron Candy, Ms Diane Epoff and Matt Dalton