Exactitude in E-Lit

Self Portrait(s) [as Other(s)] by Talan Memmott.   This work of E-Lit is characterized by contrasting exactitude.  With each new artist, Self Portrait(s) [as Other(s)] presents a written biography next to an abstract portrait.  The portraits are re-combinations of self-portraits by the artists.  The piece presents the viewer with a very abstract image, the self-portrait, which uses and collage style to combine multiple portraits.   The resulting image is disjointed, unrealistic, and abstract.  This is contrasted by the written text.  Each self-portrait is accompanied by the artists’ biography, lending concreteness to the abstract.  Calvino explains one aspect of exactitude as “a language as precise as possible both in choice of words and in expression of the subtleties of thought and imagination.” Self Portrait(s) [as Other(s)] satisfies this aspect of exactitude.  The biographical text gives readers precise details of the artists’ life, while the abstract portrait is capable of expressing the “subtleties of thought and imagination”.  Although the text may contain more factual details, a subtle, abstract insight into its subject is provided by the image—something the written biography fails to convey.  The vagueness of the self portraits lead to exactitude.

http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/memmott__self_portraits_as_others.html

~ by jessewalker717 on February 25, 2011.