In the first edition of The Gotane Cut, we sit down with conceptual artist Nelly Dansen – an interview series where we look past the surface and into the worlds of women who inspire us.
Nelly Dansen (Nelke Mast, she/her) is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where she completed a master’s in ArtScience and was awarded Best Graduate of 2023 by GOGbot. She is currently pursuing a master’s at Goldsmiths, University of London. Let’s get into it.
You work across different art forms. How do you describe your work?
‘’I am a conceptual artist, born in a Frisian Forest and raised in a house of punks. Under my alias Nelly Dansen, my work primarily explores erotic capital, femininity, and the fragmented nature of contemporary identity. I approach these topics with intertextuality, critical humor, and joie de vivre by blurring the boundaries of reality and fiction with hyperreal, exaggerated aesthetics.’’
What is inspiring you at the moment?
‘’My friends! Forever my main source of inspiration.’’
Your style seems to be an important part of who you are. When did clothing or appearance become a form of expression for you?
‘’My mom says clothing has always been important to me. I started dressing myself already in kindergarten. My mom would prepare an outfit for me in the morning but I would always re-style it myself.’’
Has your style changed over the years?
‘’A lot. My style went from indie sleaze to Nico of the Velvet Underground to gabber to bimbo in just a few years. I am very curious what my next era is.’’
Is there a piece of clothing that means a lot to you?
‘’My dad’s green knit sweater.’’
Your work often explores the gaze and surveillance. Was there a moment when you became aware of how people look at you, and how did that shape you?
‘’Last year I did a performance called ‘Smile :) You’re on Camera’ for Collective Trespassing. This work reached The Gaze in the broadest sense. Gaze of the state – surveillance – and the male gaze. The installation used camp aesthetics to exaggerate traditional Surveillance Vibes™ like CCTV, but ultimately, it pointed toward something more intimate: the internalized gaze many of us carry.’’
“The surveyor of a woman is herself male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object, and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”
– John Berger, Ways of Seeing
''That quote resonates deeply, but for me, even more so in the words of my friend Matilda: 'Women have been self-surveilling since the dawn of their puberty. Who cares about a bunch of cameras watching you when you are always already watching yourself?” - Matilda Elofsson
''This work really made me ponder when the gaze became such a present thing in my life; I think it’s always been there.''
What do you wish people better understood about style and appearance?
‘’I think a lot of people only see me in one way. Feminine traits that seem impossible for me to escape. I remember going to a warehouse rave and arriving in a very stripped-back outfit. No make-up, oversized hoodie, leather jacket, loose trousers, Vans. I felt strong and grounded.''
Later someone told me, with good intentions: “But you could never look masculine, you ooze femininity.” That made me feel trapped.
Don’t get me wrong; I adore being hyperfeminine. I love all that comes with it, all that it takes and all that it costs. But I would also love for it to be purely out of choice. It shouldn’t feel like an obligation.''
''So okay, you see me as a high femme, no matter what I do or wear. Let’s go for it. Let’s excel and succeed. Can I create the start of a societal collapse by capitalising and conceptualising my own identity? I put myself out there as the Biggest Bimbo Babe and am loving her while doing so.’’
What role does music play in your life and your work?
‘’My dad is a punk musician, so music has always been the heart of my upbringing. The first CD I got from him was Björk’s debut album when I was four, and “Rusty Cage” by Johnny Cash was my favorite song in kindergarten.’’
What do you wear when you want to feel powerful?
‘’Heels. Forever and always.’’
What’s a piece of clothing or accessory you often fall back on?
‘’I have 2 Jean Paul Gaultier gilets/vests. Those are my most worn pieces. One of them I bought at Gotane during a big art show in Stephy’s garden. Stephy, and her friend Miranda, curated a beautiful exhibition and I was lucky enough that they selected my graduation film Head Over Heels.’’
And finally, what do you hope people feel or take away when they experience your work?
‘’I hope people feel a little confused. In a good way. If someone walks away from my work thinking, ‘Maybe all of this – identity, femininity, sexuality – is more performative and fragile than I thought,’ then I’ve done something right.
''But above all, I want people to feel that it’s okay to be contradictory. To be complex. I hope it gives people permission to play their own character and to destroy it again if needed.’’