The Tangled Web of Belonging
Summary
Ten artists respond to the three alphabets in Sri Lanka to create the A-Z of Conflict, a tri-lingual artists book project. The book combines drawing and photography together with a short description of each word.
Supported by
Raking Leaves
Description of project
“The A-Z of Conflict is a trilingual artists’ book by ten contemporary artists. It imagines what a commonplace children’s ABC book would look like if all the entries were chosen in relation to words about conflict and words borne out of conflict.
The project uses English, Sinhala and Tamil, the three languages spoken in Sri Lanka, a country torn apart by a brutal civil war. From afar the compendium of entries testifies to the ways language defines us linguistically, socially, and politically. Up close it reveals how the complex workings of language have the potential to conjoin and divide us.
Each copy of The A-Z of Conflict is bound in one of six combinations, reflecting how three languages can be positioned without giving one language greater status over the others. Drawing on the history of language conflict in Sri Lanka, this artists’ book serves as a rich collective means to think about how language rights, exclusion, status, and planning might serve us better in the future then they have in the past.” From the book cover of The A-Z of Conflict, publisher Raking Leaves
My contribution to the book is a collection of photographs that reflect on hybridity, belonging and race. The tangled web of belonging responds to words used in postcolonial theory of hybridity, but also to a personal relationship to my mixed Sri Lankan/Scandinavian heritage. These images are included in both the Tamil and English language section, because of my belonging within both.
Type of work
Artists’ book
Published in
Published in the book The A-Z of Conflict by Raking Leaves and launched at MOMA, Museum of Modern Art New York during The New York Artist Book Fair ISBN-13: 978-0955667473 ISBN-10: 095566747X
Link to web site
https://www.ideabooks.nl/9780955667473-the-a-to-z-of-conflict
https://nyabf2019.printedmatterartbookfairs.org/Raking-Leaves
https://www.rakingleaves.org
http://www.ninamanga.com/the-tangled-web-of-belonging
View/ Open
Date
2019-09-19Creator
Mangalanayagam, Nina
Halik Azeez, Abdul
Cader, Muhanned
Gunarathhne, Arjuna
Rajakaruna, Anomaa
Shanaathanan, T.
Sundaralingam, Anushiya
Thenuwara, Chandraguptha
Vasuki, Kamala
Keywords
Sri Lanka
Conflict
Artists book
Hybridity
War
Aftermath
Miniature painting
Ruin
Postcolonial
A-Z
Language
Trilingual
Raking leaves
Tamil
Sinhala
Politics
Collective
Race
Decolonial
Heritage
Belonging
Difference
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng