Kristen Eliason

from Picture Dictionary

Artist's Statement

The following piece is an excerpt from my manuscript entitled, Picture Dictionary. These prose poems are presented in the format of a dictionary—the primary tool I used for linguistic understanding and mis/representation while I was living in Japan. Each section follows the Katakana syllable that most closely matches the word’s pronunciation and the manuscript as a whole follows a Katakana syllabary table (Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke, Ko, etc.). The illustrations in a picture dictionary serve to simplify communication, and this version (all of the pictures are referential) serves as a vehicle for exploring cultural and emotional aphasia. The false English/Katakana structure further explores issues of translation, the fragmentation of cultural meaning, and the disintegration of memory in the wake of grief.

This piece also serves as an elegy.