The Guest House
Souraya Jureidini
We are constantly exposed to mass media, distracted by social media and pressured into creating a perfect virtual world to portray ourselves as what is nowadays known as “happy.” Consequently, we are less conscious of what is happening within ourselves or understanding each other. We are mostly concerned with how we are perceived and “the mask” is therefore, more present than ever. Technology is constantly evolving in ways that have hindered face to face human interaction, it reduces our emotions to faceless text messages or emojis, yet recognizes only blank stares. We seem “happy” but the real question is are we really? What are we feeling deep inside? Are we still capable of recognizing what others are feeling or more importantly correctly identify our own emotions?
The Guest House sheds light on how disconnected we've become. As a reaction to this every growing issue; I mapped out my personal journey towards reaching a better understanding of emotions. Just as meditation, self-portraits can be used as a form of practice to interrupt the mechanism found in one's daily routine and turn it into a personal experiment. The collection of self-portraits are used as a tangible database of emotions visually expressing what is sometimes impossible to put in words.
The manipulation of typography, layout, use of colors and different types of paper are meant to emphasize the personification of each feeling whilst setting a tone to this emotional ride and trigger a sensory experience. The Guest House authenticates the enchanted world lying within each one of us and encourages to turn inwards.