Tuesday 24 August 2010

the air was thick with words

I need a favour from everyone checking this post. I am currently doing a project on linguistic conflict and its relation to identity. This illustration is part of that (but it also seemed to fit the theme to me). 

I need people to give me their interpretation of this image so if you could take a minute to tell me what you see in this i would be really grateful. You can be as detailed as you want.

You can see what i am doing in my project here

7 comments:

Chetna said...

The illustration perfectly represents lack of identity in the little girl who doesn't understand the language being spoken around her. Looks like deep observations are being made by the adults in the picture about the world and life and the little girl is lost.

I relate to it in my own way. When I was in Anna university, everybody, including the professors spoke only in tamil and I was always treated as an outsider because I couldn't speak the language fluently. Same was the case with the roomies in the hostel. Hence I came over faithfully every weekend to your place :). This picture totally captures that phase of life.

N said...

My interpretation is that the little girl reads the news in her regional language but thinks in English. I find myself more comfortable in English and sometimes make an extra effort to infuse Tamil into a conversation just to make myself feel less guilty.

The other image of the two people with the speech bubbles, well, it seems to me like the speech bubble in the middle highlights the 'lost in translation' part.

pretty day said...

To me, it looks like no one understands the girl. She has a lot to say and express, but no one is listening or understanding.

(I like the image very much.)

nello said...

nice work - this is a great way to show how someone might experience an atmosphere of poor communication.

bunbury92 said...

this is really interesting, and what i find unique about it is that the English part is in a secluded little speech bubble, and the rest is.. Tamil? (sorry, i don't really know..)
but i would have expected English to be the messy background and the regional language to stand alone...
the fact that the young person is speaking English and the older people the other language, could also be a play on the generational shift to English; and the fact that the English stands out, and is much clearer, is also important...
and i'm sure the specific English cutting that you've selected also has some significance!

Laia Jufresa said...

I really like what you did here. To me it reflects something I see everyday. I am Mexican but I am spending the summer in the United States. Lots of mexicans, and their relation to Spanish changes enormously between genereations. Very often you'll see a family where the parents speak in Spanish but the kids answer them in English. They both understand both languages but they both stick to the one they grew up in. Anyway, the fact that your illustration is so open to interpretation is what makes it interesting

urmila said...

Thanks all of you for taking the time to reply! :)