Positional note
I am a white, German, able-bodied cis-woman doing a PhD at a university in the South of Europe with the experience of growing up in a working-class milieu. In my work, I commit to the study of visual cultural, critical historiography in education and post-colonial, decolonial and feminist theory. I am particularly invested in images and imaginaries of 'nature' and the ways they are producing a hegemonic relations with the world and its beings.
Many of the images that I encounter when studying the picture books from the late 19th century, are racist images. In order to make the role they played in the construction of an imperial imagination and world view I need to still show the images, being fully aware of the reproduction of violence that this act implies. One of the strategies that I am using it showing only parts of the images. The fragments reveal the logic of the image but by never showing "the full picture" I aim to deprive it of its definiteness, of its ability to unfold its power of enunciation completly. As such, the fragmentation is a comment by me and a statement, who refuses to show the image but also feels the necessity to speak about it.
Furthermore, I found that it is interesting to reflect on how even though only fragments are visible, the image might trigger other images that we know and that are similar to this one. The fragmented image touches our imagination and potentially brings it into question: How does this image feel familiar? How does it relate to other images that I know? Is it easy for me to fill the gaps? What does this tell me about my imagination/the archive of images that I hold?
I have shown this image during the workshop "PerformArquivo - uma prática performático-arquivística" in 2024 in the context of the exercise "Estou vendo" or "I am seeing". At the time I did not record the conversation that we collectively shaped as a group but after the workshop I crafted a text based on that experience from my memory and notes.
( work in progress)