Burning Images: Performing Effigies as Political Protest

dissertation defense

26 April 2019, 10:45 sharp
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Aula, Oude Lutherse Kerk
Singel 411, 1012 WN Amsterdam 
The research investigates a specific theatrical form of political protest: the hanging and burning of effigies.
It is a widely known form of protest, since the production of affective images for distribution in the news media is essential to the practice. Collecting these images and reports provided the material for the research. Beginning with a close reading, I ordered the images according to various criteria: geography, chronology, motifs, themes and associations and arranged them into assemblages that make the relations between images visible and legible. As tools for the research, these image assemblages direct the inquiry into different disciplines (history, art history, anthropology, performance studies, photography theory, iconology, image studies, and political philosophy), bridging documentary and discursive modes of artistic practice with academic research. The images assemblages—in this dissertation arranged parallel to the text—are also integral part of my argumentation. This trans-disciplinary approach, I argue, makes it possible to comprehensibly assess the effigy protest practice in a single study.
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