Lost In Translation
curated by
Lost in translation is an exhibition developed in collaboration with artists whose work investigates the concept of "metalinguistic abstraction". Typically germane to the field of computer science but, the term is here adapted to the discourse of exhibition spaces, inspired by the interchangeable terminology developed to understand, speak of, and reach common and accepted understandings of reality. Lost in Translation attempts to examine who is translating and if what is being decoded is of concern.
In Walter Benjamin’s essay "The Task of the Translator," a translation is viewed as part of the afterlife of a text, and its interpretation should eventually be informed by its “history of reception”. For beyond the text, in its own right, a translation does not only carry messages; it recreates the various meanings, values, and implications given to the text throughout its existence. This means that a "text"—be it in the form of a book, film, or art work—is not simply accepted passively by its intended audience but, rather, the reader / viewer interprets the meanings of the text in relation to their individual cultural and geopolitical backgrounds and experiences.
Ultimately, the meaning of an art work is not inherent to the piece itself, but is formed and reformed within the relationship between the text and the reader, or artwork and viewer etc. When an art work is translated it exists as something entirely unique, it contains the ability to convey what Benjamin referred to as ‘pure language’ where two meanings can coexist and have their ‘complementary intentions’ of these meanings/languages communicated.
As a result, the task of the viewer, is not to convey that which has already been expressed by the work, since the artists has already so through the object; rather the task consists in finding that intended greater language or “purer language” that can occur when both are combined and linguistic harmony is achieved.
About the artists:
Through an interplay of historical fact and artistic expression the Norwegian artist Stian Ådlandsvik (b. 1981, Bergen) maps up unusual connections in transnational and -continental trade and production systems. In his work both historical and contemporary events and objects gets evaluated and re-contextualized in the form of drawings, photographs and sculptures. Ådlandsvik overturns the conventional way of thinking and habit, and gives new value to what we have always thought to be normal and ordinary. As a non- violent reaction to the status quo reality is re-interpreted to see who and what surrounds us. His work has been collected by both public and private collections, including Bergen Art Museum and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art.
b.1977 in Grande Prairie, AB. Jeremy lives and works in Vancouver, BC, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2007. Winner of the 2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, he works mainly in painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. Jeremy has exhibited across Canada in Solo and Group Exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, QB. Power Plant, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), Toronto, ON. Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Blanket Contemporary Art, Vancouver, BC. The Rooms, St. John’s, NL. Museum London, London, ON. Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK. and Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
Born in Tauranga, New Zealand 1980, Alicia Frankovich currently lives and works in Berlin. Frankovich predominantly works with notions of performance, video and sculpture. Recent exhibition highlights include: 2012: Bodies and Situations, Starkwhite, Auckland (solo), 2011: Dublin Contemporary, Dublin, Gestures, Splits and Annulations, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, (solo), 2010: New 010, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2009: A Plane for Behavers, ARTSPACE, Auckland (solo), Picturing the Studio, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent performance highlights include Floor Resistance, Hebbel Am Ufer, HAU 3, Berlin (2011); Undisciplined Bodies; an Evening Dissolving Social and Spatial Conventions, Salon Populaire, Berlin, 2008: International Prize for Performance (performance), 4th edition, Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea Trento, Italy. She has recently published her first monographic catalogue Film/Body/Gesture/ Alicia Frankovich: Book of Works, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2011.
Nicholas Cheveldave (b. 1984) is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver. He is presently finishing his BFA at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and is beginning his Masters of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths University in fall 2012. His work has been show in the recent exhibitions Satin Inferior at the VAS Gallery, and Painters ’11 at the Concourse Gallery both in Vancouver.
curated by
Lost in translation is an exhibition developed in collaboration with artists whose work investigates the concept of "metalinguistic abstraction". Typically germane to the field of computer science but, the term is here adapted to the discourse of exhibition spaces, inspired by the interchangeable terminology developed to understand, speak of, and reach common and accepted understandings of reality. Lost in Translation attempts to examine who is translating and if what is being decoded is of concern.
In Walter Benjamin’s essay "The Task of the Translator," a translation is viewed as part of the afterlife of a text, and its interpretation should eventually be informed by its “history of reception”. For beyond the text, in its own right, a translation does not only carry messages; it recreates the various meanings, values, and implications given to the text throughout its existence. This means that a "text"—be it in the form of a book, film, or art work—is not simply accepted passively by its intended audience but, rather, the reader / viewer interprets the meanings of the text in relation to their individual cultural and geopolitical backgrounds and experiences.
Ultimately, the meaning of an art work is not inherent to the piece itself, but is formed and reformed within the relationship between the text and the reader, or artwork and viewer etc. When an art work is translated it exists as something entirely unique, it contains the ability to convey what Benjamin referred to as ‘pure language’ where two meanings can coexist and have their ‘complementary intentions’ of these meanings/languages communicated.
As a result, the task of the viewer, is not to convey that which has already been expressed by the work, since the artists has already so through the object; rather the task consists in finding that intended greater language or “purer language” that can occur when both are combined and linguistic harmony is achieved.
About the artists:
Through an interplay of historical fact and artistic expression the Norwegian artist Stian Ådlandsvik (b. 1981, Bergen) maps up unusual connections in transnational and -continental trade and production systems. In his work both historical and contemporary events and objects gets evaluated and re-contextualized in the form of drawings, photographs and sculptures. Ådlandsvik overturns the conventional way of thinking and habit, and gives new value to what we have always thought to be normal and ordinary. As a non- violent reaction to the status quo reality is re-interpreted to see who and what surrounds us. His work has been collected by both public and private collections, including Bergen Art Museum and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art.
b.1977 in Grande Prairie, AB. Jeremy lives and works in Vancouver, BC, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2007. Winner of the 2008 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, he works mainly in painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. Jeremy has exhibited across Canada in Solo and Group Exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, QB. Power Plant, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), Toronto, ON. Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Blanket Contemporary Art, Vancouver, BC. The Rooms, St. John’s, NL. Museum London, London, ON. Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK. and Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
Born in Tauranga, New Zealand 1980, Alicia Frankovich currently lives and works in Berlin. Frankovich predominantly works with notions of performance, video and sculpture. Recent exhibition highlights include: 2012: Bodies and Situations, Starkwhite, Auckland (solo), 2011: Dublin Contemporary, Dublin, Gestures, Splits and Annulations, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, (solo), 2010: New 010, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2009: A Plane for Behavers, ARTSPACE, Auckland (solo), Picturing the Studio, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent performance highlights include Floor Resistance, Hebbel Am Ufer, HAU 3, Berlin (2011); Undisciplined Bodies; an Evening Dissolving Social and Spatial Conventions, Salon Populaire, Berlin, 2008: International Prize for Performance (performance), 4th edition, Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea Trento, Italy. She has recently published her first monographic catalogue Film/Body/Gesture/ Alicia Frankovich: Book of Works, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2011.
Nicholas Cheveldave (b. 1984) is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver. He is presently finishing his BFA at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and is beginning his Masters of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths University in fall 2012. His work has been show in the recent exhibitions Satin Inferior at the VAS Gallery, and Painters ’11 at the Concourse Gallery both in Vancouver.
