DOI: 10.9744/kata.16.1.1-7 ISSN 1411-2639 (Print), ISSN 2302-6294 (Online) OPEN ACCESS http://kata.petra.ac.id A Deconstructive Reading of Yasmina Reza’s Art Behnaz Amani English Department, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, P.O. Box 31485-313, Karaj, IRAN. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This article is an investigation of Derrida‟s deconstructive strategies on Yazmina's Reza's Art in which concepts such as floating signifier, différance, paradoxes, and decentralization have been applied. Here the question of aesthetic values of modern abstract art is raised. Reza confronts us with a miscommunication as a shortcoming of the language and therefore a rift in a longstanding friendship. The play is about a white painting, but each character in the play observes the painting in a different color. It seems that the color acts as a sign which is caught up in a chain of signifiers that never rest on a definite signified. In addition, the painting which is the centre of the play is decentred and replaced by one of the characters of the play. At the end, it is demonstrated that the text of this play is indeterminate without giving us any definite meaning. Keywords: Différance; floating signifiers; paradoxes; decentralization; miscommunication. INTRODUCTION modern society but also, and mainly, about the three characters' friendship. In fact, the disagreement about This article has been an attempt to examine Yasmina art is only one of the reasons for the tensions and Reza‟s Art based on Derrida‟s deconstructive conflicts experienced by this male relationship and strategies such as of floating signifier, paradoxes, and "the plot itself is really an excuse to touch on decentralization. By applying these theories it has universal themes: the fragility of human relationships, been proved that the text has no stable meaning and the failure of our aspirations in life, the conflict its ending is deferred, which is like a floating signifier between being and perceiving, the value/ danger of always postponed. Moreover, there are some words in sincerity, the loneliness inherent to human beings, the the play which change their place as they reach each power of words" (Mateo, 2006, p. 176). character in the play and are thus constantly deferred. In addition, there are many contradictions in the play Floating Color which make the text indeterminate and undecidable to interpret and this paves the way for the various The play, Art, begins with two friends conversing interpretations one can have of the play. over a painting that Serge, one of the characters, has bought recently and it has cost him a lot. The painting The researcher has attempted to decenter the center of seems to be white but practically speaking, everyone the play to open more interpretations of the play in the play seems to be obsessed with its color, possible as each new center can open new perspective observing it disparately. The color of the painting to the play, thus introducing the fact that a play can does not seem to be fixed as when it is handed to each have as many centers as possible. character it seems to vary. The color of the painting is a sign, not standing on one certain signified. It is The play's story (Art) revolves around Serge's entangled in the chain of signifiers and forever purchase of a modern painting for a huge sum of floating and we as readers of the play are not sure money. His friend Marc cannot believe that Serge, which color it exactly is and who we should believe whom he has known and loved for 15 years, could as every character is seeing the painting from different possibly have spent out two hundred thousand francs angles. on a white painting and he reacts by verbally attacking Serge. Yvan tries to placate both sides but The word „color‟ finds different interpretations by ends up being himself the target of his two friends' different characters of the play and as Fattal argues, criticisms. This simple plot sparks off a debate not just "art can be all about words and reactions" to the about contemporary art and its function and value in words and not the painting itself (2004, p.14). It is 1 2 Amani similar to the idea of Derrida that each signifier is of a word and theme, thereby drawing out their trapped in the trap of différance forever floating. A multiple meanings, revolves around a subject, sign is always moving on the chain of signifiers never which also seeks to discern motivations" (1999, reaching a definite signified and thus no absolute p.112). meaning can be given to a sign and it is there that the indeterminacy of meaning is created. It shows how the words as being a part of language always escape the meaning but produce meanings. The play has three characters, Serge the owner of the Here, the painting to Marc is white with grey lines; painting and two of his friends Marc and Yvan, each we hope it is the exact color but when it comes to viewing the color of the painting differently. To Marc, Yvan it becomes other colors like yellow and again it is completely white with some white lines. White is floating as one might ask what the connection the color he sees in the painting with grey lines going between white and yellow is; and at the end when we across it. This painting to Yvan is composed of are waiting to know what Serge as the owner of the various colors as he says, "Yvan: Various colors… painting and as the one who seems to know a lot There's yellow, there's grey, some slightly ochrish about art, thinks about the color of the painting, it lines" (Reza, 1994, p. 32). It does not have one seems to find more various colors such as red, grey, specific color like what Marc said. It is composed of pale, etc. various colors, yellow, grey, etc. To Serge, the owner of the painting it goes further than that, the painting It gives us the impression that even the colors finds different other colors as well. themselves are escaping from one another as it “Serge: As far as I‟m concerned, it‟s not white. appears first white, then grey, next red, pale and so When I say as far as I‟m concerned, I mean one. It is like finding the meaning of a word in a objectively. Objectively speaking, it‟s not white. dictionary which always refers to other meanings and It has a white background, with a whole range of words. Likewise, no definite color can be given to the greys… There‟s even some red in it. You could painting. Its color is like a hovering sign which does say it's very pale. I wouldn't like it if it was not stop at one specific color, always hanging and white. Marc thinks it's white…. That‟s his changing colors when it reaches a person. This limit…. Marc thinks it‟s white because he‟s got floating signifier makes our attempt in determining a hung up on the idea that it‟s white. Unlike Yvan. color for the painting impossible as it has already Yvan can see it isn‟t white. Marc can think what fallen into différance of meaning in which every sign he likes, what do I care?” (Reza, 1994, p. 19) is in a chain of signifiers never reaching a destination. Here, Serge sums up the ideas of his own with Marc, Contradiction as an Indeterminate Factor and Yvan‟s, each having diverse views about the color of the painting. As seen, to Serge the color is According to Derrida deconstruction as a theory does grey, red, pale, etc. It does not have one color, white, not exist as it is a demonstration that a text has already but it is established of diverse colors. Different deconstructed itself. As the Yale deconstructionist J. characters show different views about the color which Hillis Miller (1976) once put it in "Stevens' Rock and makes decision about the color of the painting Criticism as Cure", "Deconstruction is not a difficult. It is weird that three persons have three dismantling of the structure of a text but a different views about one single painting which demonstration that it has already dismantled itself" (p. makes the readers confused as what the right color of 341). It means that there is no need to apply a specific the painting is, but we cannot judge who is right as the theory based on some certain rules to a text since a text is the only evidence we have and it is filled with text when written or in the mind of an author has indeterminacy of truth. deconstructed itself as this very text is made up of language and language is not a certain and reliable Not only does each character have different views device for communication. It has gaps inside itself about the painting, but also the color of it changes like without an author having any authority or control over signifiers which are always changing place, never it; the fault is on language. resting. For each character, it has a special color and when it goes to the other characters it changes as well. Language never conveys what one says, and within The color, like a signifier, is floating, constantly the gaps it creates there are paradoxes and deferred, when reaching one specific character. As contradictions which disturb the meaning to be Knapp argues, flawless.