Polyglot

Sepideh Dashti

“The polyglot is a linguistic nomad.”

Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects

During the present historical period, we experience increasing structural injustice at the social level with unequal distribution of power and wealth, we face a new epidemic, destruction of species, and devastation of our planet. To address the complexity of living on this planet in its current state, whether we are humans, less humans, or nonhumans, I intend to use a transversal approach, cross-referencing different disciplines, in my work and research.

Migration is fueled by a sense of refuge at home, but coping with displacement and establishing a sense of belonging in your host society are two battles to win. As an immigrant woman, I create artworks to express my spatial displacement and diaspora.

I articulate my body/self in performance art that intersects with the technology of the camera.

I regard video technology as a vehicle to enact myself with particularity within a contemporary social and political context. I use the corporeal grotesque as a bodily metaphor for the anatomical female body, and I see this grotesque body as a positive and powerful figuration of cultural feminism and womanhood that points to a state of being between hope and anxiety.

Polyglot, represents my body fragmented and dispersed across the multiple channels of videos.[1] I aim to impact the very structure of thought and rely on an intensive de-familiarization of our habits of thought.

To represent my experience of crossing different physical and metaphorical borders, I use Persian (Farsi) idioms and proverbs as a style to subvert the normativity of language. This creates the condition of simultaneous belonging and not-belonging

The Video Words:

Even if it takes us growing plants from our eyeballs, our victory will be achieved. “The grass grows under my feet after 44 years of waiting”, she said. The hair has grown on her tongue after telling them repeatedly that we must leave. "I know, they always pass the buck onto us, and say, "the worm is from the tree.”.” I replied to her.

[1] My experiments included opening my eye without blinking for 5 minutes, opening my mouth with my tongue out for 10 minutes, letting worms move on my belly for 30 minutes, and putting needles into my foot skin for 10 minutes. All performances were edited in a 10-minute video.