Joy Kristin Kalu
Guest Author
Joy Kristin Kalu holds an M.A. in Theater Studies and American Studies, and a Ph.D. in Theater Studies from the Free University Berlin. Currently a fellow of the International Research Training Group InterArt, she is preparing the publication of her dissertation “The Aesthetics of Repetition” (transcript 2013). She has worked with several theater companies and museums in Germany and the United States, including as an assistant director at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and the Actors’ Gang in Los Angeles, as a performer with Frank Castorf at the Volksbühne Berlin, as Christoph Schlingensief’s production assistant, as an intern at The Wooster Group in New York and as a project assistant at Kunst-Werke, Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. In 2007 she initiated the kitchen and exhibition project “freitagskueche berlin” together with the visual artist Dennis Loesch and others. Her research interests include the aesthetics of contemporary German and American theatre and performance, the history of performance art and the aesthetics of applied theatre.
THIS AUTHOR WROTE
Joy Kristin Kalu holds an M.A. in Theater Studies and American Studies, and a Ph.D. in Theater Studies from the Free University Berlin. Currently a fellow of the International Research Training Group InterArt, she is preparing the publication of her dissertation “The Aesthetics of Repetition” (transcript 2013). She has worked with several theater companies and museums in Germany and the United States, including as an assistant director at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and the Actors’ Gang in Los Angeles, as a performer with Frank Castorf at the Volksbühne Berlin, as Christoph Schlingensief’s production assistant, as an intern at The Wooster Group in New York and as a project assistant at Kunst-Werke, Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. In 2007 she initiated the kitchen and exhibition project “freitagskueche berlin” together with the visual artist Dennis Loesch and others. Her research interests include the aesthetics of contemporary German and American theatre and performance, the history of performance art and the aesthetics of applied theatre.
October 29, 2012
In her article “On the Myth of Authentic Representation: Blackface as Reenactment“ Joy Kristin Kalu examines the current blackface debate from the standpoint of appropriation art and reenactment. She argues that the strategic repetition of historically loaded, in this case even racist practices can potentially lead to re-signification and thereby undermine conventions. Instead of demonizing blackface per se, she suggests conceiving performance as a political space of negotiation, thus allowing for the possibility, perhaps through citation, to generate new meanings for old aesthetic processes.