Introduction: Staying and Learning
Oreet Ashery, 2009
Page 2 of 4
As an artist who deals extensively with the performance of identity and subjectivity, particularly in relation to markers of gender, race, religion, national status, ethnicity and economy, I was drawn to the writing-of-the-self, the writing of one’s ‘gay 20 page profile’ aspect of the immigration experience. The notion of writing, and hence performing one’s identity, in order to ‘prove’ who you are to the state and its legal ambassadors, struck me as a significant feature for those who have to engage with it.
I wanted to facilitate processes whereby the writing and performing of oneself and one’s experiences are freed from the need to ‘prove’ anything, to be true or accurate, to remember dates and details, to account for over and over again for gaps that might appear in memory and recalling, in which you are interrogated like a suspected criminal. I wanted the participants to be able to tell their stories, something they all seemed very keen to want to share, and perform their identity in a way that allows for gaps, slippages, repetitions and new structures of embodying and imagining the self. I did not want them to create, perform, speak or write fiction, I wanted them to express themselves and their authentic experiences in new-to-them and performative ways. To this end I decided on a structure that involved a series of group workshops in which text and images would become the by-product. Rather than create images for a show or a public intervention for example, I wanted to conclude the process with a published record of the workshops as it is small and contained enough for the participants to take with them wherever they go, and for others, the Home Office, lawyers, art organisations, journalists etc, to learn from.
I have been working with alter egos and fictional characters for many years. I mainly embody male characters; these have included an orthodox Jewish man, an Arab man, a black man, a fat farmer, a Norwegian postman, a comic book character of a failed artist-come-compromised super hero, and more. My characters are developed in relation to specific artistic and sociopolitical contexts. Over the years my particular interest has been researching the agency of fictional characters and alter egos in art as a mobilising of contested cultural and political backdrops. My graphic novel, The Novel of Nonel and Vovel, with artist Larissa Sansour (Charta, 2009) is a good example of how alter egos can be used successfully; in this case to explore the contested territory of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
It was natural for me to want to try and apply my way of working with alter egos and fictional characters to this project. It was the first time I had ‘workshoped’ my methodology in this way. My aim was to work with each woman and the group as a whole to help each participant to develop a character. The character would enable the participants to tell their stories and experience themselves in a different way. To my mind, working with alter egos and fictional characters is never about pure fiction or about hiding behind a mask; on the contrary, it is a way to push to the foreground an aspect of oneself and to exaggerate it.