Never Translate this Text

Solo Exhibition
Exhibition: 06.10.17 – 08.10.17  Destiny´Oslo(NO)

When presented with a ban already in the title of an exhibition, it’s tempting to start with a little description-by-negation. What is the show not? What isn’t the show? It is, perhaps surprisingly, not a text-show, at least not in the literal sense. There isn’t any text to never translate, except for the one you’re reading now, instantaneously translated from mother tongue (Norwegian) into lingua franca (English). That is not to say that there isn’t a lot of text embedded Ronak’s works. On the contrary. They’re ripe with her reading, full of invisible inscriptions that the artist seemingly has no intention of imposing on the viewer. Quadrilateral shapes are recurrent in the exhibition, printed on- or removed from the untitled plexi-glass panes. The results are visually stern, geometric abstractions. Not monumental, not mawkish, but quite earnest, simple, and in plain sight. So why the intimation of unease? Is it because of the panes’ vague semblance to memory plaques? Or because the trapezoids look like papers, flying through the air? Archival Material, a digitally printed photographic reproduction showing people in the street, perches on a concrete ledge. Shapes are cut out, obfuscating parts of the image. Its content is still clear as day, we are looking at the aftermath of a coup d’état. Documents are strewn on the street, people are standing around reading them. This is a specific coup d’état, with its specific causalitites and consequences. It can’t reasonably be translated or removed from its site. We instantly recognise what is going on in the image, though. We’ve seen it before, as «putsch», «golpe de estato», and overthrow». The works in Never Translate This Text are not stable, though they’re neatly framed and preserved in everlasting plastic. They echo abrupt moments of movement and change. They’re slippery, both inviting and rejecting the viewer. We’re literally denied the full image. left to consider that which has been left out of the story.

Text:Nora Young
Photos: Courtesy of Destiny´
Supported by: Arts Council Norway