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Coming to Terms

Chalkboard with detailed tree chart

Works by:

Haegue Yang, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Simon Glass, Nicoline van Harskamp, James Clar, Thea Jones, Carl Trahan

Coming to Terms

September, 2013–June, 2014

Curated by John G. Hampton

Produced in collaboration with the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery

Presented at the Jackman Humanities Institute

“All translation is only a somewhat provisional way of coming to terms with the foreignness of languages.”
– Walter Benjamin (as translated by Harry Zhon)

Coming to Terms is an exhibition of seven international interdisciplinary artists working within the intersection of translation studies and artistic practice. The exhibition sprawls through the halls and offices of the Jackman Humanities Institute, and is structured around three overlapping themes: hegemonic anglophonization and its effects; deconstructionist translation; and intersemiotic translation. Employing a myriad of divergent mediums including video, vinyl text, commercial signage, chalk diagrams, and embroidered silk, the artists in Coming to Terms survey the concessions and accessions made when meaning is exchanged across disciplinary, cultural, linguistic and material borders.

Presented as part of the Jackman Humanities Institute’s 2013-2014 Program for the Arts on the theme of Translation.

The Jackman Humanities Institute is located at:
University of Toronto, 170 St. George Street, 10th Floor
Free and Open to the Public, Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

Media Coverage

Our Supporters

We gratefully acknowledge the operating support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, with additional project support from the Jackman Humanities Institute.

Title Image: Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Portrait of a Young Man (video still), 2012–2013. Video. 12 min.

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