Kokkonen, Laura Crime Scene of Representation

<div class="js-swp-work-title col-xs-12 col-md-12 u-fontSerif u-fw100 u-fs28 u-lineHeight1_3 u-ph0x u-mb3x"><div class="u-workBreakBreakAll"><span>The Crime Scene of Representation: A Case Study of the Visual Identity of the Exhibition Rauma Biennale Balticum 2014</span></div></div><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-9 u-fs13 u-ph0x u-tcGrayDarker u-mb2x">2015</div><div class="col-xs-12 col-md-12 u-ph0x"><div class="media-left media-middle u-pr1x"><img class="Avatar--circle s65 Avatar--circle s65 Avatar--xxxs" src="https://0.academia-photos.com/4841886/10669599/11911157/s65_laura.kokkonen.jpg" alt="Laura Kokkonen" width="65" height="65"></div><div class="u-pl0x media-right media-middle SWPCoauthorPopover-ListItemMediaBody u-fw500 u-tcGrayDarkest"><div class="u-textTruncate"><span>Laura Kokkonen</span></div></div><div class="hidden-xxs"><div class="work-metadata-wrapper u-mt2x"><div class="work-metadata-container clearfix"><p class="js-expanded-card-work-details--abstract">In this thesis, I have researched the visual identity of the exhibition Rauma Biennale Balticum 2014 – Crime Scene that I co-curated with Henna Paunu and Janne Koski. The exhibition at Rauma Art Museum presented&nbsp; fteen contemporary art projects that addressed issues of crime and punishment; activism; ethics; and social justice. In my research I have analyzed two images which were part of the exhibition’s visual identity, designed<br>by Kasino Creative Studio. They presented the face of a young black woman partially covered with white crime scene tape. During and after the exhibition’s parallel Migrating Art Academies laboratory event curated by Gerardo Montes de Oca Valadez, the<br>images were criticized for contradicting the aims of the exhibition, and for reproducing a stereotype of the black female subject. I have looked into how the debate about the images came into being, and have also suggested parallel readings of the images with the help of postcolonial and feminist theories on representation. I claim that rather than being stereotypes, the Crime Scene images enable multiple interpretations. They<br>can be thought of as representations of subalternity and as such, are simply a surface for employing similar representational strategies that are in use within contemporary art. From this starting point, I then research the problematic power relations of such representations. The research question of the thesis is twofold: in what sense are the images of this particular case study representations of subalternity, and what problems generally emerge from representing subalternity within contemporary art? The questions then extend to more universal discussions on representation within political contemporary art. The main&nbsp; nding of the thesis is that artistic and curatorial methods that call for greater visibility for subaltern and precarious subjects rarely take into account the power relations of agencies within such representational processes. From this standpoint, I suggest that instead of speaking for “the other”, artists and curators should engage in investigating counter-hegemonic artistic strategies that would lead to hearing or speaking to the subaltern.&nbsp;</p></div></div></div></div>