susan-elin solimani
REDRAWN is a graphic novel created as part of my Honours research project, "Semiotics of the Unseen: Omission in Graphic Novel Storytelling."
This project showcases my semiotic uses of omission. It’s a story told through graphic novel writing and through lived experiences about identity, belonging, and resistance.
This project showcases my semiotic uses of omission. It’s a story told through graphic novel writing and through lived experiences about identity, belonging, and resistance.
Dimensions: 237x297 mm.
THE PROCESS
In my graphic novel, I explore how omission—what is deliberately left out of a narrative—can be as powerful as what is included. My process involves using semiotics (the study of signs and symbols) to make these invisible absences visually tangible, forcing the reader to confront the gaps and their meanings.
This investigation unfolds through several key visual metaphors:
My work uses the graphic novel's unique visual language not to tell a story that is fully present, but to illuminate the unseen stories hidden in the spaces between the panels. By making omission visible, I invite the reader to question what is missing and to participate in completing the narrative.
In my graphic novel, I explore how omission—what is deliberately left out of a narrative—can be as powerful as what is included. My process involves using semiotics (the study of signs and symbols) to make these invisible absences visually tangible, forcing the reader to confront the gaps and their meanings.
This investigation unfolds through several key visual metaphors:
- The Hair: I use the concept and visual treatment of hair removal as a metaphor for the erasure of identity. Just as hair removal cream "omits" something intrinsic from the body, the omission of diverse or challenging details from mainstream media reshapes our perception of reality. The reader is compelled to "fill in the gaps" left by this deliberate erasure.
- The Language: Clothing, like the keffiyeh, and spatial arrangements act as semiotic markers of cultural and religious identity. By arranging characters to highlight division, I visualise the "omission of acceptance"—the lack of recognition for differing identities, creating an invisible social barrier.
- The Migration: Through the semiotics of othering—framing the absurdity of the concept through the repetition of identical figures—I render the absurdity and confusion caused by microaggressions and systemic omission. This visual homogeneity makes visible the "omission of individuality," illustrating how external perceptions can confine and define identity.
My work uses the graphic novel's unique visual language not to tell a story that is fully present, but to illuminate the unseen stories hidden in the spaces between the panels. By making omission visible, I invite the reader to question what is missing and to participate in completing the narrative.