The Chamber of White
Katalin Halasz  1@  
1 : Goldsmiths, University of London  -  Website
New Cross London SE14 6NW -  United Kingdom

The 4 minutes video is part of my video performance The Chamber of White, which is part of a series of performance events I staged as part of a Visual Sociology research that investigates affective performances of anti-racist White femininities. The video investigates and visualizes the power of Whiteness, how it is constructed as a pervasive universal norm through systems of privilege, exclusion, and violence.

Blending elements of personal experience with fiction, cultural tropes and archetypal characters, abstraction and real life events, the video includes images of the figure of 'White Woman' and icons of White femininities, such as Marilyn Monroe, and cultural figures like Cinderella and Betty Boob. These images are cross-referenced with anti-racist and feminist works of Aimé Césaire, Audre Lorde, Howardeena Pindell and Diane Torr, as well as to interviews I conducted with women active in anti-racist and feminist movements in Europe. By working through the construction of Whiteness the video offers an affective connection beyond histories of racism and sexism that we are all entangled in.

The Chamber of White was installed and performed at Roskilde Festival in Denmark in 2014. It was part of an immersive performance programme, along with the works of performance artists Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (DK), Savage Amusement (AU/DE) and Sisters Hope (DK).



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