Artist As Translator

Artists are essentially translators who truly believe in the impossible translatability of in/tangible materials that

they interact with. Artists then go on being more than translators, but at the core of each practice first

lies a sincere translation of an experience/ observation in their choice of medium.

"To redeem that pure language that is banished into otherness in one's own language, to release the language

held prisoner in the work by rewriting it- that is the task of the translator." Benjamin, 1923. Translation brings

to light the relationship of languages/ forms. Understanding these relations between mediums, disciplines,

cultures, is what digs out convergences allowing for a larger understanding. For it is in this relatedness that

each language/ medium/ form admits its limits, dependent on the interlinks between each language. These

interlinks can help us identify the gaps where the translatable passes through, and the untranslatable becomes

apparent.

We wish to identify the untranslatable nucleus in materials brought forth, to be able to give form to it, to

extend its knowability. Uncovering the untranslatable in material culture would be a task that would stretch

the legibility of materials. Admitting the untranslatability but still attempting to grasp it as the most

active/ intimate act of reading a material (Spivak).

second practice invites artists to form a chain of translation. Each participant will initiate a chain of their own,

with an object/ image/ text/ sound so entrenched in their location, that they deem difficult to translate.

They shall archive this with as much description and information as possible to facilitate the following

translator/ artist. The material will then be passed on to the next in another location. There will be a set of

instructions to follow based on Walter Benjamin’s search for the nucleus. They will respond to the

object/ text/ image/ combination and look for its translation as accurately as possible in their proximity.

They will then pass on that translation on to following artists, and on, and on. So, each artist in this chain

will be an initiator and a translator.

All participant in this chain may draw connections from literature, scientific research, nature observation,

domestic settings, sound, memory and collect material that in their response would be the truest translation

to all the material they were sent. We shall collectively attempt the stretching of language(s), to look for its'

permeability as a task of the Artist as Translator.

This is an ongoing project. More on http://artistastranslator.com/

This project is in collaboration with Vasl Artists’ Association. Also partially funded by Karachi Biennale Trust- where we are showing the first loop of translation at VM Gallery in 2022. Also generously funded by Living Arts Association as second practice received the South-South fellowship.