Joanne Morra
Inter.Intra.Translation
Inter.Intra.Translation
"Just as a tangent touches a circle lightly and at but one point, with this touch rather than with the point setting the law according to which it is to continue on its straight path to infinity, a translation touches the original lightly and only at the infinitely small point of the sense, thereupon pursuing its own course according to the laws of fidelity in the freedom of linguistic flux." --Walter Benjamin Asked to think of the as yet unknown, in the light of the contemporary, I am immediately drawn to the elision of the past. To look towards the future, at the time of the present, necessitates a consideration of history. The temporality evoked by this triangulation - past, present, future - can be seen to be an allegorical one. Allegory encourages me to begin elsewhere, that is, in "other words". It is to allegory's sibling - translation - to which I turn. Translation, as a mode, presupposes the touching of a past-present as a means of bringing to bear the (im)possibility of articulating an art practice of the future. Inevitably, this practice, as translation, pursues its own course. I would like to attempt to translate translation for a future art practice that may also translate. To enable this process of translation, I will begin with the etymology of translation: [ME f. L translatus, past part. of transferre: see TRANSFER]. [ME f. F transférer or L transferre (as TRANS-, ferre lat - bear)] A translative art practice as the transfer(ence) of an inscription from one surface or location to another. A change in the sense of the inscription. A re-articulation of a temporal and spatial inscription with the possibility of historical and subjective transformation. [F métaphore or L metaphora f. Gk metaphora f. metaphero transfer] The metaphoric conjunction of difference, with recognition of that difference. A non-imitative art practice that takes into account the violence of its condensations. [ME f. OF literal or LL litteralis f. L littera (as LETTER)] The possibility of a literal art practice that does not fall into an ontological fascism. [ME f. OF allegorie f. L allegoria f. allos other + -agoria speaking] The dual strategy of allegory, enabling the doubling of interpretation, thereby motivating the transformative aspect of an artistic practice on the beholder. The beholder (un)consciously speaks the language of allegory through the figure of translation when articulating this transformation. [ME f. OF transformation or LL transformatio (as TRANSFORM)] We are transformed by the seductive aspects of a work of art. The intimacy attenuates our sense of self: viscerally, mentally, sensually, materially. It yields an epistemological and ontological transformation. [ME = transform f. OF transposer (as TRANS-, L ponere put)] The irreducibility of the materiality of a work of art insists upon the psychic transformation of our subjective formation. We are transposed. [ME f. OF transmutation or LL transmutatio (as TRANSMUTE)] Working within various discursive regimes, an art of transmutation enables the translation of one epistemological regime into another. [ME f. L symbolum f. Gk sumbolon mark, token (as SYN-, ballo throw)] A symbolic work of art: a representational mark that throws itself out of kilter. [ME f. L f. Gk sunekdokche (as SYN-, ekdokhe f. ekdekhomai take up)] A resistant commodity fetish for global capitalism: art as synecdoche. [L inferre (as IN-, ferre bring)] Deduction, conclusion, inference. From within to without. A centrifugal art practice. [LL metonymia f. Gk metonumia (as META-, onoma, onuma name)] A translative art practice as the subtle displacements of metonymy that name translation's (in)fidelities. Joanne Morra London ................ reference Walter Benjamin is cited from "The task of the translator: An introduction to the Translation of Baudelaire's 'Tableaux parisiens' " (1923), illuminations, transl. by Hannah Arendt, London: Fontana Press, 1973 (1992), pp. 80-81. |
