The Wake

From disagreements to wars, think of how much is lost through a lack of understanding. The Minnesota Center for Book Arts addresses this issue in their current exhibit Found in Translation, which runs through April 28 in their 10th Avenue South gallery. The exhibit, set in MCBA’s exposed brick studio, with stylish red accents, features works from all mediums including paintings, drawings, sculpture, computer programs, audio, and mixed media.

“We want to challenge the idea that people have in their heads of what a book is,” explains MCBA Artistic Director, Jeff Rathermel. “A really broad definition of a book [is something that] communicates an idea through narration.”

The Found in Translation exhibit incorporates Rathermel’s agenda nicely. It defines the word translation as loosely as Rathermel defines a book, as “the conversion of something from one form to another.” This is a very broad definition including translation of languages, societies, people in various stages of life, and even translation of RNA to protein in the human body. The works displayed in the exhibit reflect MCBA and Rathermel’s broad definitions of both “books” and “translation.”

One common thread throughout the works is a desire to understand others. “It is necessary for us to be able to translate each other,” reasons Rathermel, “and to be clear and have compassion for each other.”

One installation is titled Wrongly Bodied Two. This piece tells the story of two people separated by history, brought together by the condition of being in a body of the opposite gender. The contemporary story is that of Jake, who is transitioning from female to male, the 19th century story is that of Ellen Craft, who escapes slavery by passing as a white man. This piece employs the theme of translation in two ways. Firstly, both characters undergo a “translation,” from one gender to another. Secondly, these stories “translate” for us, the issues of race and gender in a way that we may not have otherwise thought about.

Another noteworthy piece is one by Xu Bing. Bing has created a writing system he has termed “New English Calligraphy.” He has used English letters and arranged them in a way similar to that of Chinese calligraphy, with one complex symbol representing a word. There is even a computer in the gallery with a special program that can transcript anything you write into New English Calligraphy. This unique combination of different languages may startle the audience and challenge them to think outside of a predescribed way.

One installation with a practical purpose is Nat Bletter’s “Talking Books: A New Method of Returning Ethnobiological Research to the Non-literate.” These photo albums play short audio clips when a small button next to a picture is pressed. These books are meant to educate illiterate people in remote countries about the usefulness of various plants. The books are water-resistant and solar-chargeable; they are able to translate something written into a modern version of oral tradition.

Some may question how this exhibit fits into the larger idea of globalization. Indeed, the description of the exhibit references positive effect of globalization, but what about its negative effects? If we merge all of the cultures and languages together, won’t we eventually end up with something gray and tasteless? Rathermel disputes this idea. “The key [to maintaining a balance] is not making value judgments and not having one culture take precedence over another,” he explains, “the way to do that is to always honor the tradition you’re coming from.”