Daen Palma Huse – Transient Visuals: Hand-Held Ephemera in Nineteenth-Century Peru

My research analyses hand-held paper ephemera and the significance and development of printed media in nineteenth-century Lima, Peru. These portable objects include photographs (such as the carte-de-visite format), promotional cards, playing cards, and single sheets of illustrations. My research question focuses on identifying the role of these ephemera in reproducing and challenging predominant norms around religion, politics, sexuality and identity formation. I investigate commissioning, production, and use of paper ephemera. In so doing, I trace transregional channels of cultural and economic exchange that played an essential part in the dissemination and use of printed objects.

Daen Palma Huse is a researcher and curator. He is currently conducting doctoral research at University College London, funded through the AHRC by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership, and most recently supported by a Thoma Foundation Art of the Spanish Americas Travel Award. He has previously received a travel scholarship of the ARTES Iberian & Latin American Visual Culture Group and CEEH Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica. Daen completed his MA in Art History at UCL and holds an MA in Art & Politics from Goldsmiths. He is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and is the recipient of the International Relations Prize 2011 for best BA dissertation within the department of Political Science at The University of Birmingham. Daen is founder and editor of the arts publication The Protagonist and has collaborated with The National Portrait Gallery, The Wallace Collection, Leighton House Museum, Leica Gallery West Hollywood and the Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom.