Kolaiti, Christina (2020) Mal de débarquement. UK, Inprint

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Other (Βοοκ) Kolaiti, C. (2020) Mal de débarquement- Ναυτία. No place- Christina Kolaiti ISBN978-1-5272-6341-3 .pdf - Published Version Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

This publication features a collection of three intertwined bodies of work, which explore the familial environment as a practice-led context for the narrative construction – and deconstruction – of identity (Given, 2014). This type of autobiographical storytelling unfolds through a metaphorical engagement with first-hand experiences (a type of practice-led engagement) undertaken as a range of methodical and unsystematic conducts within, and also beyond, the home environment.

Mal de débarquement (trans. nausea of disembarkation) is a series of portraits contemplating a systemic approach to the representation of the individual. This concept, which originates in psychotherapy theory (Bowen, 1974), facilitates a new approach to the interrelated notions of portraiture and identity through a series of performative encounters with photographic subjects. Initially working with female subjects on a metaphorical quest for self-definition, it later engaged the wider family system in a process of role fluidity, conveyed through the underpinning metaphor of nausea.

In parallel, Home or Four Seasons at 258 Βήτα is an installation piece that explores the very first childhood memories of conducting household rituals, which contributed to the shaping of female identity. These performative activities of self-preservation, confined within the physical environment of the home, were significant in determining a very first sense of self that continued to be performed during the course of adult life.

Such “poetics of dwelling” are performed in The House Husband through the engagement with domestic rituals outside the context of the household, where “[...] knowledge is grounded in experience, understood as a coupling of the movement of one’s awareness to the movement aspects of the world”, thereby questioning the very relevance of practices and contexts (Ingold, 2000, p.11).
The narratological tensions intersecting the three bodies of work are contemplated in John Given’s proposition, Identity in conditions of zero narrative gravity, which expands the parameters of the metaphor of nausea of self in Mal de débarquement.

Dr Carla Cesare’s Playing the domestic: a gendered performance, explores the dynamics of domesticity in a comparative study of Home or Four Seasons at 258 Βήτα and The House Husband, encountering the significance of appearances, the repetitive nature of household rituals, a gendered code of attire, and the idiosyncrasies of cohabiting.

*[Bilingual publication which includes text in English and Greek]

Item Type:	Book
Status:	Published
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general > NX456.5.P38 Performance Art T Technology > TR Photography
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/5313

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