This paper calls for the importance of examining the presence and implications of land and landscape in popular media, specifically the genre of the historical docudrama. The first section situates...Show moreThis paper calls for the importance of examining the presence and implications of land and landscape in popular media, specifically the genre of the historical docudrama. The first section situates the research gap in the diverse field of landscape thinking, an interdisciplinary field engaging cultural geography, philosophy, art history, media studies and critiques of national thought. In response to John Wylie’s call for concern for ‘homeland thinking’ in landscape studies, it pursues a critical comparison of phenomenological and relational conceptions of ‘embeddedness’ in landscapes alongside the notion of landscape as ‘foundation’ of identity as defined by the European Landscape Convention. The second section of the paper opens up to an in-depth exploration of land and landscapes in the first episode ‘Hunters and Farmers’ of the popular docudrama Het verhaal van Nederland (The Story of the Netherlands). The analysis demonstrates the frequently narrow and exclusionary effect of engaging land and landscapes in national ‘stories’.Show less
In the world of art, museums have been a transformative agent in challenging how artworks can engage with an audience. However, museums that previously thrived in a physical space has now been the...Show moreIn the world of art, museums have been a transformative agent in challenging how artworks can engage with an audience. However, museums that previously thrived in a physical space has now been the challenge by the advent of COVID-19 to replicate their engagement with the audience to a virtual space. Virtuality, has a propelling component to museums, as it can replicate an exhibition in a digital platform. However, virtuality's relationship with art has been relevant before COVID-19, as theorists have been aware of the potential of approaching virtuality as a theoretical concept. A prime example being feminist theorist Griselda Pollock' in her published book "Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum: Time, Space and the Archive”(2007). Pollock transformed virtuality to embrace an unconventional feminist approach to art, that deconstruct previous limited narratives of female artists. This essay has applied Pollock's framework to consider one female artist who has been heavily ingrained into a historical structure of representation, the Mexican/German artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). The purpose of this essay is to explore Kahlo’s art alternative understanding of the artist, by also exposing the explicit way art historical frameworks can diminish the magnitude of a Kahlo’s work.Show less