ABSTRACT
In “Tongue in Cheek: Julie Edel Hardenberg's Visual Language”, the author looks closer at the decolonial methodology in the groundbreaking photobook The Quiet Diversity by Greenlandic artist Julie Edel Hardenberg. A central issue in Edel Hardenberg's decolonial methodology is addressing mechanisms of silencing as well as access to language, and here photography is key as an accessible means of visual expression. Rather than approaching photography as a record of the past, the medium is emblematic of her efforts to formulate new collective and affective spaces.
The chapter outlines the complex historical relationship between Greenland and the former colonial power Denmark, which still continues to hold political and cultural influence. The continuous negotiations of governmentality and integrity between Greenland and Denmark have over the years spurred heavy debates in Greenland about protecting national identity. One culmination of these discussions was in 2004 when the Home Rule Government launched a cultural policy report that aimed to strengthen the ‘authentic’ and ‘original’ Greenlandic identity. It was in this context, the following year, that Julie Edel Hardenberg's trilingual photobook The Quiet Diversity / Nipaatsumik assigiinngisitaarneq / Den stille Mangfoldighed, was published as a powerful statement against fixed and conservative concepts of identity.
In analysis of Edel Hardenberg's matter-of-fact visual grammar, the author discusses her playful representations of hybrid identities and her original engagement with language, which is also evident in other and more recent works by the artist. The chapter argues for the decolonial, anti-institutional potentials of the photobook as genre.
