The Crux of Authorship

Examining the works of three female artists working in the field of history, this chapter illustrates how artistic, auctorial subjectivity and the author's task of representing absent voices can be negotiated, especially when encountering other historical subjects. Tacita Dean’s short film Pie records a view out of the window of the artist’s studio in Berlin-Mitte. In an extensive project presented in different media since 2013, Erika Tan has been working with a historical personage, Malayan weaver Halimah binti Abdullah. As the artwork unfolds, the film crew observe, document, and reflexively reconstruct the staging of this “piece of history.” By assembling quotations from various sources, settings, and moments, Khalili creates a “collective” and polyphonic discourse. The work of the historian thus is not limited to narrating or conveying existing information. It yields ever new translations, new perspectives.