I am Queen Mary: On Sustained Protest and Denmark’s ‘colonial amnesia’
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Standard
I am Queen Mary: On Sustained Protest and Denmark’s ‘colonial amnesia’. / Grøn, Helene.
In: Performance Research: a journal of the performing arts, Vol. Volume 27, No. 3-4, 2023, p. 161-166.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - I am Queen Mary: On Sustained Protest and Denmark’s ‘colonial amnesia’
AU - Grøn, Helene
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This article focuses on sustained protest through the I am Queen Mary statue, sitting in front of the West Indian Warehouse in Copenhagen’s waterfront. I am Queen Mary was co-created by artists La Vaughn Belle and Jeannette Ehlers, and inspired by Mary Thomas, a key figure of rebellion from the 1878 Fireburn labour revolt on St Croix against the ‘contractual servitude that continued to bind workers to the plantation system after the 1848 abolition of slavery’ (Ehlers and Belle n.d.). The statue is then ‘a hybrid of bodies, nations and narratives’ (Ehlers and Belle n.d.) that simultaneously invites the viewer into reflections on Denmark’s ‘colonial amnesia’ (Belle n.d., 2019; Ehlers and Belle n.d.; Stenum 2017; Odumosu 2019). Through the lens of Laura Shalson and Mary Lynne Gasaway Hill’s thinking on performance and protest, the following analyses I am Queen Mary from her artistic making, to the invitation into critical and reflective viewership and the necessary ongoing campaigning for a ‘permanent space to holistically tell the history of slavery and colonialism’ (Odumosu, 2019: 628).
AB - This article focuses on sustained protest through the I am Queen Mary statue, sitting in front of the West Indian Warehouse in Copenhagen’s waterfront. I am Queen Mary was co-created by artists La Vaughn Belle and Jeannette Ehlers, and inspired by Mary Thomas, a key figure of rebellion from the 1878 Fireburn labour revolt on St Croix against the ‘contractual servitude that continued to bind workers to the plantation system after the 1848 abolition of slavery’ (Ehlers and Belle n.d.). The statue is then ‘a hybrid of bodies, nations and narratives’ (Ehlers and Belle n.d.) that simultaneously invites the viewer into reflections on Denmark’s ‘colonial amnesia’ (Belle n.d., 2019; Ehlers and Belle n.d.; Stenum 2017; Odumosu 2019). Through the lens of Laura Shalson and Mary Lynne Gasaway Hill’s thinking on performance and protest, the following analyses I am Queen Mary from her artistic making, to the invitation into critical and reflective viewership and the necessary ongoing campaigning for a ‘permanent space to holistically tell the history of slavery and colonialism’ (Odumosu, 2019: 628).
U2 - 10.1080/13528165.2022.2155428
DO - 10.1080/13528165.2022.2155428
M3 - Journal article
VL - Volume 27
SP - 161
EP - 166
JO - Performance Research
JF - Performance Research
SN - 1352-8165
IS - 3-4
ER -
ID: 332601666