TY - JOUR

T1 - Spectres of Colonialism in Contemporary Art from Denmark

AU - Petersen, Anne Ring

PY - 2020/4/1

Y1 - 2020/4/1

N2 - In the 2000s, postcolonial critique effectively changed the agendas of contemporary art and art history, not least in Denmark where several artists began to engage with the local history of colonialism, the question of Denmark's share in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel slavery, and the continued effects of colonialism on contemporary societies. After outlining such activities on the Danish art scene, this essay focuses on Jeannette Ehlers and Nanna Debois Buhl, two Copenhagen‐based artists who have made the history of the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) the topic of several video works. I propose that their perceptions of Danish colonialism and its effects on the islands are very different. Therefore, their works need to be analysed within different frameworks: in Buhl's case, a combined postcolonial and critical whiteness studies perspective; in Ehlers's case, a combined decolonial and postcolonial perspective. Furthermore, a postmigrant perspective is introduced to provide a frame for understanding how closely the critique of (Danish) colonialism ties in with pluralization processes in society at large.

AB - In the 2000s, postcolonial critique effectively changed the agendas of contemporary art and art history, not least in Denmark where several artists began to engage with the local history of colonialism, the question of Denmark's share in the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel slavery, and the continued effects of colonialism on contemporary societies. After outlining such activities on the Danish art scene, this essay focuses on Jeannette Ehlers and Nanna Debois Buhl, two Copenhagen‐based artists who have made the history of the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) the topic of several video works. I propose that their perceptions of Danish colonialism and its effects on the islands are very different. Therefore, their works need to be analysed within different frameworks: in Buhl's case, a combined postcolonial and critical whiteness studies perspective; in Ehlers's case, a combined decolonial and postcolonial perspective. Furthermore, a postmigrant perspective is introduced to provide a frame for understanding how closely the critique of (Danish) colonialism ties in with pluralization processes in society at large.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Contemporary art

KW - Danish colonialism

KW - transcultural entanglements

KW - video art

KW - postcolonialism

KW - postmigration

U2 - 10.1111/1467-8365.12496

DO - 10.1111/1467-8365.12496

M3 - Journal article

VL - 43

SP - 258

EP - 283

JO - Art History

JF - Art History

SN - 0141-6790

IS - 2

ER -