The video art piece, The Diver, conceals its subject’s true identity. The one known only as the Diver seems to be engaged in an endless search for ‘Heart’, for he/she feels that a ‘heart’ will free him/her of a suppressive state. In other words, the Diver seeks to find a ‘heart’ in order to realize/expose the Diver’s own identity.
The art book, The Lovely Little Story of Laila’s Heart, is compiled of various images that tell the story of Laila’s heart. Her heart seems to live in its own world; a hidden world full of contents of all kind…realities and illusions…acrobatics, desires, fears and hopes….etc. The art images expose the hidden city inside Laila’s heart as seen through childlike innocence and vulnerability.
While the two works are not directly connected to one another, both are concerned with the idea of what is covered up and what is left uncovered, the hidden and the exposed, inner depths and exterior surfaces – on one hand a heart that has a whole world inside it (the art book), and on the other hand a diver dressed in black, concealing his/her gender, facial features, etc.(the video).
The two subjects of the pieces suffer from being extremely withdrawn, shying away from exposing their true selves. Laila’s heart has its own entity. It contains within it (within her) many concealed stories, or fragments unknown to the outside world before. Those are now confessed, by crossing the boundaries of shyness and silence. While the Diver shies away of true identity exposure and uses the diving suit as the ultimate veil or defense tool, Laila’s heart - which usually guards its secrets well - now openly bares what is enclosed within it. The Diver’s identity is never truly brought to light; we can never find out who the diver is, we can only experience his/her world briefly and see him/her caught in an unending search, which to an extent seems comical and without true purpose.
file: Busha
catalogue no. 317
file: E
catalogue no. 473
file: E
catalogue no.711
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