Dear Reader,
per-so-na [ per - soh - nuh ]
Deriving from Latin, the concept of the persona
1.
a character in a play, novel, etc.
originally referred to the actual mask an actor would
2.
a person’s perceived or evident personality, as
wear during a play on the Roman stage. Today,
that of a well-known official, actor, or celebrity;
however, the word is used as a metaphor for the
personal image; public role.
façade we hide ourselves behind on an every day basis,
(Psychology) (in Jungian psychology) the
and is most commonly used in conjunction with
mechanism that conceals a person’s true
psychological discussions about how we alter and
thoughts and feelings, esp. in his adaptation to
transform our way of acting and behaving to better
the outside world
fit in – or control – a social situation. Actors make
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a living out of these acts of transformations; so do When asked who you are, what do you say, apart
many musicians, even politicians. No one outside you
from your name, where you come from and what
knows what really lay behind the layers of makeup,
interests you have? How well can we possibly know
the performances or the eloquent words but yourself
ourselves? And is there such a thing as a clearly
– maybe not even you.
defined, individual identity? Philosophers have been trying to agree on a universal truth about identity
Being human is a complicated matter, and even more
for centuries, and there are thousands of theories
so if you don’t play your masks right. With that as a
to choose between, for those who wish to do so.
starting point, this issue of A Doll’s House is trying
According to the Japanese artist Kimiko Yoshida, for
to peek behind the mask, and seeks to explore further
example, with whom we have an exclusive interview
what an identity really is.
in this issue, there is no such thing as identity. She claims her work is not concerned with searching for
If there is such a thing as one, that is.
identities, but is rather showing how her personality is made up by infinite layers, that will reveal only emptiness if peeled away.
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With love, Hilde & Astri
CREDIT WHERE DUE
Editors: Hilde Holta-Lysell & Astri Barbala
Graphic Design & Editorial Illustration: Jan & Danielle Schjetne
Contributors: Hilde Holta-Lysell
adollshouse.no/hilde
Solveig Selj
solveigselj.moo.no
Julie Pike
juliepike.com
Esra Røise
esraroise.com
Jessica Silversaga
silversaga.se
Kim Jacobsen To
kimjakobsento.com
Nina Blekk
ninablekk.com
Kimiko Yoshida
kimiko.fr
Special Thanks To: Canon for support through printing
Visit us online at adollshouse.no
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WHO IS WE... Popular musical acts have used their style and masks to make themselves memorable and iconic. In Who is We our contributing artists explore what makes them unique. The artworks put these well known styles on people not normally associated with them, and they become instantly recognizable. Art Direction by Ronny Pi & Hilde Holta Lysell
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Photography Solveig Selj Hair Eirik Thorsen / Adam & Eva / L’Oréal Pro Styling Linda Nicolaysen Model Noora Noor
Photography Kim Jacobsen To Makeup Thomas de Kluyver Hair Tomihiro Kono Model Ann Sophie Costa
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Illustration Esra Røise
What Do You Know About Makeup?
You’re Just A Girl David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
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Photography Hilde Holta-Lysell Hair/Makeup Linn Jøssang Helgeland / Gevir Model Hanne Kolstø
If there is anyone in the Norwegian music industry who is familiar with embodying various stage personas, it is Hanne Kolstø. Juggling several band and performance projects at once – including
INFIDELITY
recent by:Larm success Thelma & Clyde – the Kristiansand native’s debut solo album Riot Break
By Hanne Kolstø
will be released this spring. Of all the words I know I don’t know any words that tell you how it feels like Words are like puppets But they’re not connected Never mirror what’s inside here Wrapped up and covered I can see myself outside my shell Unrecognizable I am alone There’s nobody to catch me when I fall When I’m on stage, I stop mirroring people around me and move inside myself. It feels like stepping into an empty room. There are many doors with different outcomes. If you are lucky, one door may be enough. But either way, I want to try them all and see how far I can go in each direction before I become a fake. Maybe the total sum will get me closer to the core of who I am, or maybe the quest to find myself is neverending.
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12 Photography Solveig Selj Hair Eirik Thorsen / Adam & Eva / L’OrÊal Pro Styling Linda Nicolaysen Model Mariann Rosa
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Photography Solveig Selj Hair Eirik Thorsen / Adam & Eva / L’Oréal Pro Styling Linda Nicolaysen Model Maya Vik
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Photography Hilde Holta-Lysell Hair/Makeup Linn Jøssang Helgeland / Gevir Model Samsaya
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Photography Julie Pike Styling/makeup Kjersti Andreassen Model Anikken U/Team
Photography Julie Pike Styling Anja Stang Hair/makeup Agnes Marie Guldbrandsen Model Una /TFM
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KIMIKO YOSHIDA CONDEMNING IDENTITIES ”There is no search for identity in my work. I know that identity doesn’t exist. There are only infinite layers of me. If I peel them back, like the skin of an onion, there will be nothing underneath.”
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For a decade, artist Kimiko Yoshida has explored issues of
Identity is not the matter. I see monochrome as a figure of
representation by transforming herself into various characters
the infinite and I regard the self-portrait as a disappearance:
in front of her own camera, drawing on a wide range of
totally conditioned by the experience of transformation,
references from cultural and historical occurrences. Other
my art develops a stance of protest distanced from “current
photographers such as Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman
affairs”: against contemporary clichés of seduction, against
are often mentioned in the same vein as their work also
voluntary servitude of women, against “identity” defined by
investigate identity, representation and self-portraiture, but
appurtenances and “communities”, against the stereotypes of
studying Yoshida’s monochromatic pictures, one understands
“gender” and the determinism of heredity.
that her “ceremonies of disappearance” are coming from a different, deeper place.
Self-portrait is the place of transformation. Art is above all the experience of transformation. Transformation is, it seems to
Born and raised in Tokyo, she left her native Japan for France
me, the ultimate value of the work. Art for me has become a
in the mid 90s, claiming in her artist statement that she
space of shifting metamorphosis. My Self-portraits, or what
aimed to escape the “mortifying servitude and humiliating
go by that name, are only the place and the formula of the
fate of Japanese women”. With her husband and collaborator,
mutation. The only raison d’être of art is to transform what
psychoanalyst and collector Jean-Michel Ribettes, she took
art alone can transform. All that’s not me, that’s what interests
some time to reflect over my questions, fresh back from
me. To be there where I think I am not, to disappear where I
working with glass sculptures in Venice, Italy.
think I am, that is what matters.
Firstly, your work has during the past ten years surrounded
The representation of myself as a fiction mixing my Asian
self-portraiture. Would your pictures be different if you
culture in references to Western art history is yearning for
were using a model in the place of yourself?
monochromy as a metaphor of effacement and disappearance,
I don’t look at my images as at self-portraits, I see the
a mark of virtuality and intangibility, a symbol of infiniteness.
shooting session as a ceremony of disappearance. Self-portrait
The monochrome is a pure figure of duration wherein all
is not the subject. If I am the model it is as an easygoing way
imagery and all narrative are dissolved. Here, before the
to do what I have to do. My self-portraits or what goes under
infinite colour, the gaze is exposed to the infiniteness of Time.
that name are nothing but vanities. They refer to the funeral
This paradoxical representation is presented each time like an
rituals where the mummy is embellished and adorned with
impossibility, a powerlessness, and a precariousness. It is this
makeup, painting, jewels [and] ornaments.
effect of incompleteness which gives the idea of a rigorous unrepresentable, unlocatable space, the idea of a space
What I know about images is that even though they depict
beyond the image where representation exceeds the space of
the living, they speak of death. They draw their ambiguity
representation.
from that, from being a reflection only, a thin limit near the emptiness. Because there is something inflexible and compact
My self-portraits represent the attempt to render representation
in a reflection, the image covers the undefined that being’s
possible by seizing it at the point where what is present is the
caput mortem advances. The imaginary reflection of the
invisible absence at the heart of the image, that absence that
living reveals the obscurity of their fate; the image gives up
the image makes a point of honour of making visible. The state
being to its shadow essence. Its meaning is inevitably Vanity.
of invisibility isn’t the point where I put myself on display, it is
First there is real presence, [and] then the image comes, that
the point that I put on display. The state of invisibility I put on
is, the absence of the real thing. The real thing must be made
display is connected with the radical demand of art. By giving
more remote, must disappear to allow itself to be grasped
the immaterial (the immaterial as the unnamed) an image in
anew as a shade or reflection. The thing collapses into its
a series of portraits, the work of art represents what is invisible
image where the present is absolutely lacking; it has reunited
in a figure, its immateriality, before figuring itself as a figure of
with that root powerlessness where everything stops: still life.
disappearance.
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The question is not an insignificant ‘Who am I?’ But my work does open on the more pertinent and essential question of identifications: ‘How many am I?’ Which obviously has quite a different impact. Remember John Lennon (the very first words introducing to I Am the Walrus): “I am he as you are he as you are me...” Reading that Jean-Michel is a Lacanian psychoanalyst made me think of how much Lacan’s quote “all sorts of things in the world behave like mirrors” relates to your work. Has psychoanalysis played an important role for you? Yes, psychoanalysis has a major role in my art, which is highly determined by the theory led by Jacques Lacan about the gaze, the image and the signifier (the symbolic representation). For me, image comes down to absence, disappearance, obliteration. But it is all a matter of transformation, connection and reversal: metamorphoses of the body, changes of meanings. Absence is the presupposition of every image, which only ever represents that which is lacking. However, disappearance itself is the condition of revelation. Erasure is overturned into epiphany. An image of the self, then, that does not spare or forbid itself trans-cultural references or trans-historical meanings, that is unceasingly revisiting them, deconstructing them and unfolding them in images, allusions, metaphors, metamorphoses, masks and personae, fictions, crossed or reversed transformations, a succession of transfigurations, of annexations and illuminations. An image that tries to rethink in images its own meanings and references, an image conceived in the necessity of thinking its own presuppositions, a thinking that integrates the analysis of what makes it possible: epistemology and semiology, formalism and minimalism, subtraction, addition, hybridisation, appropriation, reappropriation, ritual, psychoanalysis, crossbreeding, aesthetics, sensibility, the mixing of genres, the very immateriality and polyphony of thought, everything that enables Kimiko Yoshida to test art as the most daring, most radical and freest experiment in voicing the lack-in-being, in converting the symptom, in transforming suffering and unhappiness, in forging past devastation and despair. I expose myself to the disappearance
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of the self, to the disappearance of the persona’s mask. I
in all images and that provokes fascination. When the
abandon myself to the impersonality of symbolisation, to
gaze is fascinated, what it sees in the image is not what it
the impersonality of death. The image is the presence of an
looks at, what seizes it and captures it is not in the image
absence. That is what the work makes real, endlessly seeking
that it beholds but in what it lacks, what fixes the cause of
what it lacks.
fascination in something beyond what the image shows. The fascination is fundamentally linked to this neutral and
Why should figuring have something to do with this essential
uncontoured presence of an indeterminate and figureless
absence, this absence such that in it alone disappearance
opacity within the figure. This hole of opacity within the
appears? That an image fascinates, this happens when it
figure, this hole that hollows the heart of the image with
concentrates within itself the blinding and enchanting
absence, when picked up by the gaze, produces a kind of
allure of what it lacks, this ontological lack that is present
disquiet and attraction. With Kimiko Yoshida’s aspiration to
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disappear into pure colour, absence becomes visible, because
The limited role of women, particularly in your native
it is blinding.
Japan, has been an occurring theme in your work. Judith Butler suggested that gender, too, is nothing but a
The gaze is drawn into an immobile movement, absorbed
performance, is that something that you consent to?
in a ground without depth. What it is given to see by this
The “gender” matter appears to me as producer of clichés
distanced contact is the blinding fascination of what it is
and stereotypes nourished by the ideology of “communities”,
not possible to see. The gaze uncovers the cause of its desire
appurtenance, ghetto, family, segregation, exclusion,
to see only in what is out of reach, what is lacking in the
romanticism, and, at the end, negativity and nihilism. I go
image, which opens an unfillable gap in the visible. Thus the
for the ambiguity, the duplicity that enables one to extricate
gaze finds the cause of its desire to see precisely in what is
oneself ‘out of the charnel house of birth’ (Heredia), to escape
not shown. And it is in what makes it possible that the gaze
mind-destroying nihilism, to free oneself from the exhausting
finds the power that neutralizes it, that puts it off balance
standstill of death.
by preventing it from ever having done. This is where we see revealed the power of the fascinum, which is what exceeds
Your work is extremely interesting from a fashion
the gaze, that points it, in a vision that never ends, towards
perspective as well as an art perspective, and you have
the point that captivates the gaze and does not belong to the
a background in the fashion industry. Is fashion still of
reality of the image. The fascination provoked by that which
interest to you?
is lacking in the image is not the impossibility of seeing, but
My new series of photographs, indecipherable portraits
it is now the impossibility of not seeing. The fascination does
conceived with the history of art in mind, is entitled
not arise from the impossibility of seeing (the invisible), but
Painting. Self-portrait. This symbolic transposition of the
from the impossibility of not seeing the lack that lies in the
chefs-d’oeuvre of the old masters into large archival prints on
image, the punctum that hollows out the visible and makes it
canvas is based essentially on the diversion of haute couture
desirable. And never ceases.
garments and fashion accessories. (Most of these garments [are] designed by Paco Rabanne [and] belong to Paco
By giving the immaterial (the immaterial as the unnamed)
Rabanne’s Heritage.)
an image in a series of portraits and letters, the work of art represents what is invisible in a figure, its immateriality,
Titled Paintings, these new self-portraits could have been
before figuring itself as a figure of disappearance.
called Détournements because of the way they are organized
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around the processes of deflection or diversion. The French
You just got back from a trip to Venice, where you were
word détournement means […] turning something aside
making glass sculptures. What other projects can we expect
from its normal course or purpose. This term was redefined
to see from Kimiko Yoshida in the near future?
by Guy Debord (The Situationist International, 1957–73)
I am preparing a series of blown glass mirrors entitled (in
in the sense of “diversion of preexisting aesthetic elements”:
Italian) Senza Imagine – they reflect light, not images!
“Détournement is thus first of all negation of the value of the previous organization of expression […], the search for a broader construction, at a superior level of reference, as a new monetary unity of creation.”
Text and interview by Astri Barbala All art by Kimiko Yoshida
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No! I’m not like you. I don’t feel like you. Photography: Jessica Silversaga –– Models: Mikas Stockholm –– Assistant: Frida Walström
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A HOLLYWOOD PERFORMANCE:
LA LA LAND UNMASKED If America is the land of hopes and dreams, Los Angeles is the dream factory, and where thousands of people every year arrive with an urge to become rich, famous and successful. But behind the scenes, there is a whole different story than what is told by the tabloids.
Text: Astri Barbala
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Illustration: Nina Blekk
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Hollywood, Los Angeles, November 2010: When my beloved husband announced that he had the opportunity to relocate to Los Angeles, more precisely the glitz and glam hub that is Beverly Hills, I was less than thrilled. Having never set my foot there, or the US whatsoever, L.A. was to me the epitome of capitalist hell and pop culture gone wrong; this despite the fact that one of my all time favorite TV shows is Beverly Hills 90210. But as the series recently morphed into a bad shadow of its former self and I became painfully aware that the Peach Pit didn’t exist in real life, La La Land seemed as appealing to me as a bloody piece of steak. And I’ve been a vegetarian for 11 years and counting.
ruin their hours spent in the gym earlier the day; not to speak of what it would do to the skin!), and gluing on a smile that instantly disappears as the camera is lowered. I don’t even want to think of the amount of fine champagne that is wasted at parties in L.A. every day. It could have fed my Norwegian friends’ (frequently heavy) drinking habits for years. 3) Certain people blatantly only talk to you if they think it might boost their career. 4) In cafes in areas popular with movie execs, you will encounter several people who will constantly pose; while paying for their skinny lattes, while talking on the phone, even while queuing up for the toilets. Because, who knows who might drive by and discover them, any minute now?
A visit in May last year to check the city out “just in case”, as my husband put it, changed my outlook, however. After a week staying in sunny Santa Monica, I realized how much happier people are here than in gritty London, where budget cuts and low temperatures are breaking down even the most optimistic of individuals. Even the bus drivers in Santa Monica were friendly, and not only did they actually stop to let you on, which is more than you can say about London bus drivers; I even got travel advice and a smile on top of it. Also, not having to spend lots of money on umbrellas that always miraculously disappear in a pub corner just before it starts pissing down with rain and you don’t have enough cash for a black cab, sounded like a splendid idea.
To say it with Felix da Housecat: Everyone is someone in L.A. Or rather, everyone wants to be someone.
So after throwing 90% of our stuff away and saying our long, teary goodbyes to friends and family, we were good to go. Arriving in Los Angeles, we would be living in a brand new, fancy apartment in the heart of Hollywood, just above the infamous Walk of Fame. The first couple of days we constantly felt like we were part of a movie set (sometimes we even were), and I couldn’t understand how people not born and bred in L.A. constantly kept telling me to be patient and “learn to like” the city, concern in their eyes. But after the joy of posing in front of Rodeo Drive and pointing out the Hollywood sign each time I could spot it wore off, I started noticing weird things: 1) If you choose anything else but egg white omelets, coconut water or algae shakes in a fancy area dense with actor and model types, you might be considered a fatty. 2) People often go to parties for ten minutes before leaving, placing themselves strategically in front of the camera lenses while pretending to nip the champagne (alcohol has plenty calories! And it would
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Los Feliz, Los Angeles, January 2011: Where Hollywood is the tacky, fame-whoring old diva of La La Land, the neighbour area Los Feliz is its chilled-out, creative little sister favored by artists, musicians and L.A.’s fashion pack. It is also where Melanie Taylor, part-time actress, aspiring screenwriter and the woman behind the blog A Feminist Guide to Hollywood, prefer to meet up with me in a cozy, old-school diner to talk about acting, sleazy directors and conforming – or not conforming – to Hollywood’s ideals of beauty. Having arrived in Hollywood from her native Atlanta, Georgia, six years ago to pursue an acting career, she is now studying to become a screenwriter. - How come someone who grew up with Riot Grrrl and writing punk zines felt the attraction to Hollywood? - Like many others, I felt it was calling me. I didn’t know anyone here apart from my boyfriend, who moved here with me. But I had been acting previously and was interested in film, so turning to Hollywood seemed like the natural thing to do. - Why did you decide to start blogging about Hollywood and the culture that surrounds it? - I started up the blog as a way of connecting with others, and to share my perspective on Hollywood and popular culture in general. Moving here, it was hard finding other women with the same outlook as me, so the blog evolved out from that. My initial idea was also that I wanted the blog to eventually evolve into a documentary. Using hidden cameras, I wanted to explore if one can be a feminist actress in Hollywood, and to see how much you would have to compromise.
- So; can you be an actress in Hollywood without getting in conflict with your ideals? - I soon realized that I became disconnected from my past values. Back home I wrote zines growing up and was heavily influenced by the Riot Grrrl movement, and you don’t find many people sharing the same mindset within the acting business in Los Angeles. Everything here seemed different from what I was used to, and I was no longer surrounded by people by the same mentality. Being an actress puts you in a weird position, as you’re often just a little part of someone else’s project. But that doesn’t hide the fact that I have had some very interesting experiences and met some great people on the way. - Have you ever felt pressure to conform to a stereotypical Hollywood idea of beauty? - Moving here, I definitely became a lot more focused on what I looked like. When I went to castings, I was told to look “hotter”, which I tried, as I wanted to get a job. Being an actress in Hollywood you have to have a certain look. There are a lot of role descriptions that call out for “hot girl”, “sexy girl”, “beautiful”, things like that. It is easy to feel out of place. I have usually been cast as the punk rock girl, or the quirky girl, or anything with music, though I never got far enough to feel I got typecast. There have been times when I’ve turned down a script because I felt uncomfortable with it, and I clearly recall a specific moment when I revaluated what I was doing. It was before a casting for a P.Diddy music video. I needed money, and there was a $1000 pay for the job, so I dressed up in a sexy outfit to fit the role description. But looking in the mirror before I was on the way out the door I thought; what am I doing, is this really what I’m supposed to do? Back in Atlanta I would have hated it. I ended up not going, despite the money that was up for grabs. - What about sex pressure? I remember you wrote a blog post about how you felt you were expected to say yes when a director asked you on a date on a casting. - Yeah, and these things happen all the time, and often straight to the point. You have powerful movie people acting like you are expected to sleep with them. But you don’t talk about pressures within the industry, and no one reports on it. Despite what people say about her, I think Megan Fox was very brave to speak out about [director] Michael Bay, and how he made her wash his car in a bikini as part
of getting the role in the Transformers movie. It is important to report on these things, and not just accept it. - From your own experience both as an actress and aspiring screenwriter, do you think that the movie business is in the midst of a change? - I feel like it is changing a lot, and that there definitely are better roles for women now than it used to be. However, there is still a clear hierarchy there, and as a screenwriter I’m still just a girl in Hollywood trying to make a career. [As for my own screenwriting], I’m in the process of finding out what I want to write about. I have always been a writer, and as movies nurture a lot of people, it is a good way of reaching big audiences with a story. I have now been working on a comedy where the lead actor is a guy and all the characters that surround him are women. [In my writing] I’m using things I encounter in everyday life that I feel I want to share with the world. It is nice to share humor with people, and it is a good way to reach an audience if you have a message; your movie will affect people if you make them laugh, Melanie concludes, before we say our goodbyes and she returns to her new home in the valley, where her university is situated. As for me, I get the metro back to what used to be Old Hollywood’s magnificent dynasty; Downtown L.A., where I have set up home amongst the run down 1930s theaters and hotels. Drug addicts and squatters now inhabit what previously were the luxurious hotel rooms of Cary Grant and Jean Harlow, and the fact that Skid Row and a big part of L.A.’s homeless community are found here is painfully evident outside my rebuilt loft apartment. But this is also the area where California’s burgeoning artist community is situated, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and celebrated fashion darlings Rodarte. As much as it is trying to hide it for the rest of the world, L.A. has both deep wounds and a wellfunctioning brain behind the plastic fantastic mask, which has nothing to do with skilled plastic surgeons or youth serums. I will never be a Kelly Taylor, loving the high life in Beverly Hills or embrace the cynical, celebrity obsessed culture that bases itself on paparazzi pictures of Paris Hilton’s cellulite or the drunken antics of Mel Gibson. But I’m definitely learning to love the contradictions of Los Angeles, fake smiles ‘n’ all.
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