JOYCE JOUMAA

Stillness in a Fast-Paced World

Author Valentina Tsilimidos

Artist Joyce Joumaa

Artwork Final Notes on Touch, 2021

Since the pandemic began in early 2020, the world has revealed many skeletons in its closet. Issues that would have been brushed off and normalized in a pre-pandemic world are now facing time in the interrogation room. For video-artist and Concordia undergraduate, Joyce Joumaa, the stillness of time experienced during the pandemic served as inspiration for her piece, Final Notes on Touch. Originally from Lebanon, Joumaa was inspired by the politically charged art that she was surrounded by during her upbringing. After coming to Canada to pursue a degree in film studies, Joumaa became interested in the power of film as a means to study the culture of a society.¹

Having asked the question “if we were to reshape the context of a single frame, what other experiences does it give us outside its moving parts?”² in previous works, Joumaa is interested in the decontextualized and fragmented. Bordering on this same research question and the notion of absence of context, she created Final Notes on Touch. This piece displays three overlaid images of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin exchanging a handshake during a political meeting. The viewer is left clueless as to what was discussed during the meeting; this lack of situational orientation allows for a craving to know more. Extracting still images from moving pictures strips them of their given context, thus enhancing their power. This method therefore allows for a sensation of being caught between the worlds of art and reality; one must turn to the artistic image to get a sense of what is really going on.

Moreover, Final Notes on Touch was created with the COVID-19 pandemic at the forefront of public thought. With the future of physical relations and touch uncertain due to the virus, Joumaa asks how the absence of a handshake will affect the future of political decision making and agreement.³ A friendly handshake can set off a world of political upheaval, being that it serves as a ‘final seal’ on international relations. In Final Notes on Touch, the three frames of Trump and Putin’s handshake placed on top of one another make it so that there is an illusion of touch without it being explicitly shown. Joumaa creates a dynamic scene within an otherwise still image, consequently inviting the viewer to question the future of politics post-pandemic. Joumaa thus questions if the lack of a handshake will be detrimental to the world of politics, or if a new official action can be found in its place.