Translating Experience: Re(presenting) the life of Gisele d'Ailly

Abstract

In this thesis I engage with three different research projects concerning the life of Gisele d'Ailly (1912-2013), a Dutch painter. These entail a biography by Annet Mooij, a documentary film by Janina Pigaht and a visual art project by Amie Dicke. Drawing from interviews with these three artist-researchers, I explore how each of them accounts for the knowledge her project produces concerning the complex subject matter of the life of Gisele d'Ailly. After providing a thorough feminist framework of research methodology and knowledge production in the arts and humanities in the first two chapters, I analyse each project separately in subsequent chapters.