23 April

The intial conception of Sasha’s portrait on Carmen-Sibha Keiso is that it is rudimentary. But no, it isn’t; rudimentary is the wrong word. I would describe, in two words, Sasha’s portrait as gorgeously simplistic. With such a charismatic subject, Sasha’s stripped interview with a minimalistic setting worked well. Sasha chose to use as little ‘found footage’ as possible, which also worked with his subject. It is all dependant on context and the human subject. When ‘found footage’ was evident, it was Carmen-Sibha’s own work which I thought was astutely chosen in terms of presenting a portrait of her. I think that the way the piece opens and ends abruptly without any sense of ‘beginning’ or ‘end’ worked well in terms of this portrait as the subject did not need this; I could understand her personality and motivations by the simplistic non-narrative style. Whilst not technically brilliant, Sasha’s construction of his portrait was intentionally simple and I believe it worked very well.