ALJOHARA JEJE - EXPOSURE INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL
Series /pəˈfɔːm(ə)ns/: a silent story told, a statement, a performance.
To lessen misunderstandings in this sensitive subject, let’s invoke the book of words, for, beyond words’ immediate denotations, they have connotative powers.
The Process:
Performance (Oxford Dictionary Online): 1. ‘An act of presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment’; performances are with physical movements but also with spoken words, sounds, noise, this in stark contrast with the contemplative silence of a photograph. Interesting to visualise this tension.
Silenced:
In general, we women are educated, we learn not to speak our minds
ODO 2.1 ‘A task or operation seen in terms of how successfully it is performed.’
But, if we do speak our minds, it is often classified as
ODO 1.2 ‘A display of exaggerated behaviour or a process involving a great deal of unnecessary time and effort; a fuss.’
Silenced twice:
For people with vaginas, orgasms commonly come from the clitoris.
Female Genital Mutilation: the most severe — infibulation — is the removal of the clitoris and parts of the external genitalia followed by stitching together of what remains.
Words are like pearls, rolling formed, developed and cultivated over time, treasured, colourful, shiny, lustrous pearls of wisdom.
Pearls, as pure and innocent symbolising the clitoris, have an imaginary value. The value of a word, of a clitoris is what we designate for it.
Title: /pəˈfɔːm(ə)ns/, which is the English pronunciation of the word 'performance' put in writing, is as intelligible when silence(d).
ODO 2.4 ‘An individual's use of a language, i.e. what a speaker actually says, including hesitations, false starts, and errors. Often contrasted with competence’
The women of this series are, as women around the world, silenced.
Triptychs and Diptychs, (the centre) locked in between two worlds, one mirroring the other.
Series /pəˈfɔːm(ə)ns/: a silent story told, a statement, a performance.
BIOGRAPHY
What is art without a message?
As long as I can remember I have been a woman and artist. Enraptured by techniques, I graduated in Product Design, after Art-Photography, in between propaedeutic in Art History, and later in life I took courses in medieval artistry techniques (in China and in Portugal).
Enjoying Saudi Arabia’s vibrant society so much and convinced that The Kingdom has all the elements to become the next artist's hub on par with Berlin and the like, I choose to live and work here.
