5 Words

Rosa Garcia, Me In The Eyes Of ______., 2017

I started on a little project before I got introduced to Sophie Calle. I asked many people to describe me in five words. Little did I know this was so connected to this assignment of seeing myself in the eyes of others. I did not want to include myself in the image physically. I wanted to let the words speak instead as well as having two images including my boyfriend to sort of capture the idea of who I am. I kept the rose from a previous selfie, I felt it was too pretty to erase. (proud of my art skills) I forgot one word which was mysterious and I messed up putting some of the words in black but were meant in green, but I’d like to say my mistakes are a part of this as well as being human. I wanted something intimate and in my writing or one kind of hand writing I have. But the idea is that the way I see myself is barely anything to what everyone else sees, so I felt the need to ask and almost validate what I am. I say I am all of these things yet defining these words used to describe me has been a journey in itself.

This reminded me of the  breakup letter Sophie Calle used as art. I felt like this was a letter to myself but at the same time I feel like it’s an invasion of everyone else’s point of view. It is personal yet impersonal because it is not me speaking but it's about me.  And to connect manners into this specific piece, I feel the best quotes to describe are:

“Manners refer to the nature of relations between people, to standards of bodily deportment, to ethics, and the control of vice and brutishness, and to how we imagine ourselves”(112). This particular quote I feel expresses how manners, or the way I present myself influences others views which influences me. It’s a form of expressing the human qualities I have. Especially the flaws yet the quirks of what creates me. The other quote, “Indeed, the term has no simple and reliable definition , but it does have the important function of bringing focus to how we conduct ourselves in the public domain and how we pursue pleasures and cultivate tastes”(112). This is based of the same concept, explaining how things we see form our ways or manners. In my case being told things I did not know about myself influences me to be what I am told. If that makes sense. I’m not sure.