ContextsCase 3: Self Portraitan explicit research outcome which attracted much attention was a doctoral thesis
presented at the university school of art and design in helsinki in 2000. The author
Riitta nelimarkka was a well- known visual artist and author of books for children who
trained at the sibelius academy. her thesis consisted of three exhibitions (two real
and one virtual on the internet) and a large book with about 100 charcoal drawings
(nelimarkka 2000). according to the Finnish tradition, separate juries examined
artworks and texts. The three prescribed exhibitions were approved. The two opponents
recommended that the book be printed but the school’s own research council rejected
it on the grounds that it was more autobiographical than critical. What followed was
a cause célèbre that agitated academia in Finland. nelimarkka took the initiative to
appeal and the thesis was finally accepted, but with the lowest grade (approbatur). The
subsequent public debate did not concern the art works but the content and form of
the book, which the artist declared should be regarded as part of her artwork. The
thesis had radically advanced the positions and arguments of art- based research. This
was accentuated further when nelimarkka criticized the whole process, the juries and
the school’s rector in a public press release.
The most offensive elements of the thesis were, according to the critics, the language
and the style, for example nelimarkka’s use of three fictitious alter egos (a hare, a ball
and the figure elise) as spokespersons explaining how her artworks originated. From an
academic point of view, Self Portrait could be regarded as a model of autoethnography,
i.e. ‘an autobiographical genre of writing and research that displays multiple layers
of consciousness, connecting the personal and the cultural’ (ellis and Bochner 2000:
739). These texts can take the form of diaries, essays, poetry, fiction, fragments or
multiple layers, often expressed in the first- person. nelimarkka’s alleged academic
carelessness about quotes, sources and references could be regarded as a symptom of the
post- modern aesthetic, in which fictitious information and fake documents frequently
occur. her thesis would probably have been accepted in ethnology or anthropology
if presented there, while the critics regarded it as a parody of doctoral theses and an
affront to the academic system.
some of the most controversial art projects, like ‘unknown Woman’, could be
regarded as action research methods and should perhaps be documented and assessed as
such, in ways comparable to autoethnographic research projects. Critics have observed
that today’s narrative and aestheticizing journalism is approaching fiction and the arts,
through fake and directed documentaries, biographies as novels, etc. paradoxically,
artists who seem to notice more than journalists do, are the only ones with enough time
and resources to engage with and disclose reality by means of increasingly politicized
installations and projects, while the news media produce fiction.
While journalists do not dare to criticize political and religious fundamentalism,
individual artists have stood up with their artwork to defend freedom of speech and
the arts’ right to deal with, criticize and even blaspheme any values and beliefs. death-
threats have consequently been made against, among others, the danish artist Kurt
Westergaard and the swedish artist lars Vilks for their caricatures of mohammed,
which were published in newspapers worldwide.