Images that translate

Abstract

The connection between translation and contemporary art is a hitherto under-researched avenue. Some scholars have analyzed the translation of exhibition catalogue essays (Krein-Kühle 2021) or the museum as a translation site (Sturge 2007; Neather 2008, 2012, 2021; Liao 2018, 2021). Although these are important and necessary research avenues, my aim here is different. I intend to study translation beyond the verb-centric tradition, looking at how artworks have been using translation for decades and how the images used by artists communicate through nonverbal semiotic systems. This will be done by (1) examining the artworks that use words as images (with special emphasis on John Baldessari, Lawrence Weiner, and Robert Barry), (2) by studying how many contemporary artists use translation in their artworks (Ghada Amer, Danica Dakić, Nalini Malani, Mona Hatoum, among others) and (3) by concentrating on exhibitions which deal with translation as a way of looking at the world.