Essay # 2

Finding My “Punctum”

When first given the challenge of finding a private photograph and determining what the studium and the punctum would be I thought that this would be a breeze. How hard could it be? In my head, floods of images that I have taken in the past years came rushing through; I thought I had a punctum in each one of them. So as I sat, trawling through piles of photographs I was in shock when not even the one I had thought to be my most sentimental photograph did not (in the words of Barthes) “prick me”. Photographs bring back memories, and that it did however it did not bring back any emotions. I felt no pain, no happiness, I just remembered. How could this be? My most treasured photograph and all it had to offer was studium, a memory that I would have remembered with or without the photograph. Am I “puctumless”? Would I never have a relationship with a photograph similar to Barthes? I didn’t accept this. I searched for days on end for that perfect photograph and found it. It’s a badly taken photograph, with three people centred in the middle of the frame smiling, which would be part of the studium. They look happy. The Studium, to me would also be the red fabric draped strangely in the back of the area, the grey block on the left hand side which is distracting looks like a part of a car seat, just an attribute to the badly taken photograph. One of the people is wearing a “Q8 Oils sign” so we could interpret that this person has links to that company, either he directly works for them or because of how young he looks it’s more likely a relative works for them. The way in which they all are cuddled together shows that they were at that point quite close (relationship wise). There’s also evidence of another person, the photographer. This photograph was taken in a car from the front seat looking back. It’s a dark photograph and looks like it was taken at night. There is no date on the photograph so it’s hard to determine when this was taken just from the photograph. One thing I noticed which would probably be considered a studium was the fact that all three of the people in the photograph were wearing red, which makes me wonder whether it was planned of just coincidental? Had it been planned it would emphasise the relationship the three had.
The red fabric in the back brings on the punctum for this photograph. This is a photograph that was taken in May 2003 on a trip to Russia; it was taken the first night we arrived. We had all decided to go out to partake in some underage drinking (of course) and decided to split up and take taxis. It was freezing, I remember to this day the chill, it reached your bones. But that “chill” is not my punctum, that is yet to come. So it was Gabriela, Luca, Dusan and myself that got in one taxi. The red fabric in the back was the Soviet Union flag, the hammer, the sickle, and the star. Dusan who spoke little Russian (more than any of us did) sat in the front in order to try to communicate to the driver and Gabriela, Luca and I sat in the back. And this is where the punctum comes to play. Our driver was psychotic, raging about the Soviet Union in a combination of Russian and English while swerving in between cars at insane speeds. Not to mention the icy roads worried us. We feared for our lives. It was when our driver had stopped briefly in traffic that Dusan turned around and said cheerfully “We’re going to die. This is your last photograph, look pretty” in the hopes that the driver would just think he saying, “say cheese!” As mentioned before the punctum in this photograph is brought on by the red fabric, without that this would just be another photograph with Luca and Gabriela (which I have lots) in a car. My punctum is the mix of excitement and fear we all felt. We were all happy, and laughing but our hearts did skip a beat every time that near miss happened (which was often). When I look at this photograph, it’s strange to say but my heard races, I feel as if I am there all over again. Sitting in the back on a taxi with 3 of my close friends and a crazed Russian man driving. I can feel the Gabriela’s grip on my arm (which bruised). This photograph proved me “punctumfull” and I’m satisfied. Since then I have lost contact with Luca and Gabriel, and I wonder what they’re up too.

Essay # 1

Essay # 1

Cima Azzam’s sculpture work is both as aesthetically pleasing as it is intensely meaningful. Nine life-size, white, gypsum sculptures of the human figure are arranged carefully around the Ductac gallery space for the A106 Exhibition entitled “Do not feed the artists”. Six are placed on plinths; three on each side of the gallery and another three are placed on the floor on top of a black material stretched out in the centre of the space. Her piece entitled “Vessels” is a study of the human figure, but not in the traditional sense. She has allowed room for interpretation and imagination, her figures are incomplete. Rather than full casts of the figure Azzam has chosen to cast only certain parts of the body, often leaving the face and torso out, focusing on the back and the limbs and they way in which they twist and curve. Each sculpture appears to have a personality and a life of it’s own, they are unified by the material and style in which they were made but differ in stance and positioning.
What interests me the most is her choice of material. Rather than using the gypsum powder which would create full, smooth, and strong figures she opted to use the gypsum strips which gives the figures a feel of delicacy and fragility which could perhaps be seen as a play on the human condition. The positions in which the figures have been cast in are also very simple and beautiful to look at, she has taken everyday positions that we have taken for granted and disregarded and turned them into stunning almost romantic pieces of art work. The hollowness of the pieces along with white colour gives a surreal feel, she gives the viewer an opportunity to feel as if these figures are shells, are just skins of others that you could try on and wear. Azzam also give the viewer a chance to fill in the gaps, fill in the missing pieces of the figure, imagine a head or create the rest of the body or place yourself there. She has left the texture of the figures the way they were made, rather then smoothing down the gypsum. Which gives the impression of a snake like skin. A shedding of the skin, almost as if these “skins” were evidence of a person existing.
The work in general seems very peaceful and balanced. It is very obviously a study of the figure, we can tell from the way in which she has displayed them on plinths almost as if they are specimens and evidence of the human figure. The figures have been carefully made and well thought out, however I see this more as a study of the human condition rather than just the human figure. She questions the form and shape of a human figure. Almost as if asking the question “what makes a figure a figure?” “To what extent can we say a figure is a human figure?” By removing parts of the body she pushes us to think further about our own bodies and the form in general, about where the line is drawn. How much could one remove from the body until it can’t or shouldn’t be considered a figure anymore? By removing the face, a significant feature in the human figure can it still be considered a human body? Or is it the torso that qualifies it as a complete human figure? As mentioned before the figures seem delicate and frail and we, as humans can easily break. We are not as strong as we portray and we decay overtime much like Azzam’s sculptures. I believe that the use of the gypsum strips emphasized this point. Had she used the powder gypsum and created full smooth casts then figures would appeared to be more tough and durable. They would have look almost scientific, a proper anatomical study, which I feel was not the message, she had wanted to get across. The hollowness invites the viewer to try on the different skins, imagine him or herself or even project themselves into these. The hollowness or emptiness of the figure also connotes the idea that the body is just a shell, one that can easily break and fracture. I feel that the artist has created these figures in order to show people how delicate and intricate the human figure is, and how beautiful it can be when it’s simplified. These figures aren’t positioned in extreme postures, neither are they painted or sculpted in an extravagant way. She has taken the basics and the simplicity of the figure and transformed that into sculpture to show us the natural form of the body with all its faults and imperfections, which in turn makes it striking and true.
Cima Azzam has incorporated aesthetics through meaning together in a truly magnificent way; she has unified her piece and has allowed it to be conceptual enough to be the topic of many further discussions, ones far past the human figure. The way in which she approached the idea of a study of the human form intrigues me, her idea of what should be studied may vary from yours or mine but she has managed to make it relatable and universal by allowing you to step in and feel as if you are one of the figures being studied. To me, a good piece of artwork is one that poses as many questions as it has answered and her series of work “Vessels” does just that. Cima Azzam has studied the human figure and its complexities and is now asking you to.

*Photograph taken by Altamash Urooj*