BEYOND WORDS: Artists and Translation is being exhibited now until 16 March
at Art at Wharepuke in Kerikeri.
Organised by Ralph Kiggell in Bangkok with Mark Graver in NZ,
BEYOND WORDS is a multimedia touring exhibition
that explores text, language and interpretation through art.
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| Lynne Avadenka (USA), Root Words: An Alphabetic Exploration, 2001 Artist’s book, Edition 28/30, in collaboration with Mohamed Zakariya. Concertina and pamphlet-stitch binding, photopolymer, letterpress and lithography Land Marks Press, Huntington Woods, Michigan |
All art involves a process of translation: from emotion to concept, action to expression.
In BEYOND WORDS, 12 artists from 11 different countries
create works that assess and describe acts of translation:
how word, meaning and belief refract as they are transplanted across contexts, media and histories.
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| Ralph Kiggell (UK/Thailand), Sacred Shapes, 2013 Double-sided accordion book, Edition 1/8, 63x33.4cm, extends to 225cm Woodblock print, water-based ink on kozo paper Binding by Phantipa Thanchookiet at Likay Bindery, Bangkok |
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people move from country to country
to find work, refuge, escape or because they are trafficked.
At the same time, a global non-culture is proliferated through satellite and digital media.
In the process, news and gossip, stories and myths are interpreted up and down the chain of languages.
As information travels, its meaning and identity mutate.
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| Cayla Skillin-Brauchle (USA/India), Everything is the Truth, 2013 24 page artist’s book: box, rubberstamp, screenprinted |
Many of the artists in BEYOND WORDS are bilingual, multilingual
or are learning a new language and may live temporarily or permanently away from their land of birth.
The works in this exhibition show an empathy or antipathy for the foreign,
while allowing that displacement through translation provokes a slippage
from which new philosophies may be discovered and new art evoked.
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| Mark Graver (UK/NZ), Harbin II, 2010 Acrylic resist etching |
BEYOND WORDS artists include Lynne Avadenka (US), Peter Bellars (UK/Japan),
Nancy Campbell (UK), Maung Day (Myanmar/Thailand),
Stephen Eastaugh (Australia/Argentina), Bess Frimodig (Sweden), Mark Graver (UK/New Zealand),
Jacqueline Gribbin (UK/Australia), Ralph Kiggell (UK/Thailand), Karen Helga Maurstig (Norway),
Ema Shin (Australia/Japan), Cayla Skillin-Brauchle (US/India), and Sarita Sundar (India).
Works include English, Greenlandic, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Marathi,
Burmese, Thai and Spanish texts and voices.
For more images and information, click here to go to the Art at Wharepuke website.
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