Literature and art

Deconstruct W.O.R.D.

By Jolanta Lapiak, literary arche-creator

In my unique piece of work "Deconstruct W.O.R.D., cinematic devices, imagery, textual performance, and metaphors are involved.

Original version of 2010

The literary artist Jolanta Lapiak presented her poetry performance Deconstruct W.O.R.D. at the Edmonton Poetry Festival, April 23, 2010.

At the end of this performance, I stamped my personal red seal on my arm in the same way one stamps a red seal on the work of calligraphy. I am the text.

Influences and inspirations

Among my other literary works within the same theme, I was influenced by Jacques Derrida's literary criticism and philosophy within the themes of arche-writing, phonocentrism, trace, and so on.

Not only I was influenced by Derrida but also by Japanese calligraphy that this influence can be found in many of my works of art, performance, and other forms.

Dictionary, calligraphy, sign language are the recurring theme in my body of works. Funny,

Comments

"When one sees or hears "word", it is automatically assumed that it comes from spoken English but "word" itself have several meanings. And, Jolanta's act of "listening" to the dictionary reflects how much the hearing world relays on sound as the authoritative figure, yet the word printed in text doesn't make sound. A simple performative gesture to confront our mainstream critical thinking/attitude toward language(spoken). -- Peter Cook, June 2010 (FB).

Hannah Lutzenberger discusses Jolanta Lapiak's work piece, Deconstruct W.O.R.D. (2010), in depth in her B.A. thesis, "Buchstabe – Wort – Text – Sprache" with the focus, "Eine Untersuchung der Strukturalität einer manuellen poetischen Sprache im Hinblick auf ihre dekonstruktive Verwendung in Jolanta Lapiak Deconstruct W.O.R.D." in Hamburg, 2014.

Related posts

Also see Liberated from Signoclasm: a performance.

Torn and Cut Dictionary: ripping language

Knowing Fish: a poetic narrative.

New to sign language? "Where do I start?" or "How do I start learning sign language?" This ASL Rookie guide lists some selected links to the tutorials for ASL beginners to get started and keep rolling. It may be a useful review for intermediate-level learners and ASL students as well.

Some tutorial pages are a mix of free and premium versions. Access to premium content and links below are available in the PatronPlus subscription. More links/posts will be added from time to time.

Expressing needs and wants

  1. Making commands or requests

Talking about activities

  1. Frequency of time: how often?

Are you able to carry everyday conversations in ASL? Are you a student in the intermediate levels and beyond, who wishes to boost up your signing skills? You've come to the selected tutorial series. (Some premium content are available to PatronPlus membership.)

Stories, poems, performance arts, etc. in sign language.

This documentation project follows a child's language acquisition, literacy development, and phonological acquisition in sign language, specifically ASL, from newborn to age five in a natural native-ASL environment and visual culture.