Mimesis - Performing to be an Artist

Transmedial, digital video.

2016

Artist Statement:

"Through pondering on the terms mimicry and imitation in relation to performative aesthetics, one inevitably has to think about art theory and the Aristotelean term mimesis. Furthermore, academic theories about imitation quickly direct you towards the term repetition as a self-directed kind of imitation. In particular, Judith Butler's 1988 essay 'Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay on Phenomenology and Feminist Theory' led me to the idea of performing an artistic act repetitively and putting it into context with gender and (stereotypical) artist identities. Butler states: '[...] gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather, it is [...] an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts.'
She defines the term dramatic as follows. 'By dramatic I mean [...] that the body is not merely matter-of-fact and incessant materializing of possibilities. One is not just a body, but, in some very key sense, one does one's body [...].'
Through exploring the distinctions between mimicry, imitation and similarity the following question constituted further: To what extent is the shaping of an artistic identity a performative act per se?"