The Big Event (2014) from Sahan Jayawardena on Vimeo.

Silence (One Minute Excerpt)

Silence from Sahan Jayawardena on Vimeo.

Artist Book

Artist Book response

I found this reading very similar to that of a Judith Butler piece that I had read earlier this year in my Writing 205 class. Throughout the reading, I struggled to find a solid definition of what an artist book was, or what the point of this reading was, for that matter. My doubts, however, were addressed in the very last paragraph of the reading. The Judith Butler piece I read earlier this year spoke about the different aspects of gender and how gender was something that couldn’t and hasn’t been fully defined. In this piece about the history of artist books, author Johanna Drucker discusses the variety of different ways that the artist book has been interpreted throughout it’s brief history while mixing in her own personal opinion. The readings starts off by calling the artist book the “quintessential 20^th century art form”, which can only be stated as such because of how vague the term “artist book” really is. From what I’ve gathered, the term “artist book” is a placeholder for art that doesn’t have a home anywhere else. Saying that artist books have erupted in the 20^th century is misleading because artist books include so many various things—journals, any independent publication, experimental printing, actual books, or other advanced technical productions of different scale and physical complexity—so the term “quintessential” is a misrepresentation. However, at the very end of the article, Drucker herself explains that the attempts to define artist books have been “hopelessly flawed”; they’re either too vague or too specific (however Drucker failed to give examples of definitions that are too specific). Although I am still not entirely sure what an artist book represents, I agree with Drucker’s final, personal interpretation of the term:

Artist books take every possible form. There are no specific criteria for defining what it is; it distinguishes itself.

Persona response

In the film Persona, Bergman uses the theme of doubling in a variety of different ways. The story focuses around two characters. At the beginning of the film, the two seem to have very different characteristics—almost polar opposite—but it isn’t until later in the film where we see the similarties leak out on to the surface. Alma is introduced has a strong willed nurse who is seemingly independent and has a strong sense about her, however she herself notes that she doesn’t have confidence in her mental strength, in comparison to Elizabeth. Elizabeth is introduced as a woman on a downward spiral, a woman who used to have it all, but then lost focus of what and who she was. Throughout this film, we see this same downfall in Alma.

            Bergman uses these two characters as a reflection of themselves. Elizabeth sees Alma as what she used to be and what she can return to be, whereas Alma sees Elizabeth (in her current state) as what Alma truly is on the inside. The two characters in this film embody each other, and Bergman hints at this throughout the film using different cinematic techniques. Bergman focuses on the two characters as one by splitting the screen between them and forming a singular face to embody both Alma and Elizabeth as different parts of the same person. The film jumps back and forth between shots of Elizabeth and Alma together, acting the same, being the same versus them as polar opposites. There’s a scene where—almost like a dream—Elizabeth touches Alma’s hair. It’s here where Alma believes Elizabeth has spoken to her, which she has, but in a deeper sense. Towards the end of the film, one scene is played twice but in two different perspectives—one of Alma’s and one of Elizabeth’s—which acts as a subtle gesture by the director to mesh the two together.

            In this film, it’s easy to say that Elizabeth changes Alma, but she actually helps Alma realize who she truly is on the inside: a lost and confused soul. Towards the beginning of the film, after their first encounter with each other, Alma is seen on her bed, trying to convince herself that the life she lives is a good one. As a viewer, we get the sense that she’s starting to doubt her lifestyle, which foreshadows her downfall later in the film. Persona explores and exploits the complex characteristics and personalities that we all have inside us. Elizabeth and Alma embody two sides of the same person and the transformation it takes to get between the two.

Scattered Selves

Sahan Jayawardena

Studio Concepts

Scattering Selves

“Women…use art as a vehicle of independence”

The fight for independence and equality as a woman is a movement that is very common in today’s era. Feminists are everywhere, and rightfully so. In one paragraph, the author talks about how women are using art as a vehicle for independence. But later on, the author goes in to great detail to talk about how women go to great lengths to portray themselves as somebody else, as other identities.

“Women look in to a camera the way they look in to the mirror.”

I thought this way an interesting comment because most of the time, at least for me, when I look in to the mirror, I see only myself. Actually, that’s the only time I see the truest form of myself. Other times I might feel a different way or picture myself in a different light, but in a mirror, it’s very black and white. No gimmicks, just myself in my truest form. In the camera, I feel like it’d be the complete opposite. In the lens of a camera, I can become anybody that I want to be. Of course, I’m a guy, and this entire piece is about women.

“Using art not as a way of hiding the self, but extending and redefining the identity by destruction of stereotypes”.

This comment goes hand in hand with the first. Understandably, as a fight for independence, the use of art as a way to destroy stereotypes is powerful. However, wouldn’t the stance be more powerful if these women dressed up as themselves instead of creating different personas? Wouldn’t the stance have more power if the pictures were just of them, as women? Instead of women cross-dressing? The changing of identities really threw me off as a way to promote the way of the self.