”PhD project” by Ellen Nyman

Our lives have no meaning, no depth without the white gaze. And I have spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.” Toni Morrison, author and Nobel Prize winner.

The assumption for this project is that the structure of this white perspective affects one's identity building and thereby also one’s artistic and aesthetic practice. The aim is to shed light on the interplay between the conscious work with the body as a symbolic tool and the site-specific influence on how race / ethnicity is constructed.

Aim and research questions

The question that the project poses is: what strategies are created to navigate within these structures, a perspective that surrounds cultural institutions, aesthetic norms and the audience in a historical and national context? What expressions do these strategies generate and how can one imagines an artistic practice beyond and within these norms? The research touches on themes such as black studies, adoption, decolonizing practices and intersectionality.

Research implementation and anticipated impact

The project is based on the performative practices that are primarily in the performing arts and visual arts, such as performance art, happenings and political action with the ambition to build bridges to other fields of humanities and other disciplines within the same field of knowledge.

Schedule

Start and end year for the research 2019 - 2024.