| Description |
This book arises from a series of recent international collaborative performances that simultaneously expose and critique the dominance of English language in the contemporary world. Using both text and image, it presents a series of dialogues and debates around issues of translatability, cultural ignorance and the politics of language both in local and global contexts. These issues are explored in ways that include the academic, the narrative and the experimental.
In a foreign country a woman steps onto the stage and delivers a coherent speech in the audience’s mother-tongue – but the woman does not understand a single word; a poet relates the ‘honeyed and alchemical’ process of his translations; Narcissus berates Echo for her perceived misunderstanding of his words – subsequently he conceives a suicidal vengeance upon fickle communication; an analogue-radio enthusiast dials into ghostly voices and the enigmatic transmissions of the secret ‘numbers stations’; an oppressed population achieve solidarity under the banner of their distinct national language; a teacher of ‘China English’ argues for its acceptance amongst the standard variations of the English language; a disturbing fact is revealed about the postman.
In a series of performances across the globe, artist Clare Charnley has attempted to communicate speeches, written by local collaborators and utilising a diverse range of languages from Chinese to Estonian, none of which she understands. So communication... collects works, many newly commissioned for the book, by an international selection of academics, visual artists, photographers and writers illuminating themes drawn from Charnley’s performances, in essay, polemic, photography, and short-fiction. |