Translation
This project was previously exhibited at Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago (9/11 through 10/17/09), at The Baltimore Museum of Art (6/20 through 8/17/09), among work by finalists for the Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize, and at Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco (2/13 through 3/31/09), where it was nominated for an AICA Award for "Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Nationally." The installation and supplemental materials have site-specific variations.
"This installation is the result of a painstaking process that took Molly Springfield two full years to complete: her own “translation,” entirely in the form of drawings, of the first chapter of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.
Springfield’s project—which San Francisco Chronicle critic Kenneth Baker called an “irresistible” work “of rare conceptual elegance”—consists of 28 individual drawings of photocopies of sequential pages from the first chapter of the novel, pieced together from every existing English translation. This patchwork results in the repetition and omission of text from page to page, resolving into an incomplete and not-fully-readable rendition of the original.
In addition to confronting the inevitable loss that occurs during the process of translation, Springfield’s work is a meditation on the slipperiness of memory, the transformative power of labor, the materiality of language, and the definition of originality.
The installation includes a mixed media, site-specific supplemental work, A Brief Note on the Translation, in which Springfield explores the conceit of playing translator—offering viewers selections from the research and writing that informed her work. In serving the dual purposes of explanatory wall text and artist’s sketchbook, Brief Note underscores the subtle cheekiness inherent in much of Springfield’s work. The text is also intended as the preface for a forthcoming book of the drawings."
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Watch excerpts from a panel discussion with Proust scholar Joshua Landy and art critic Kriston Capps, held on February 2009 (off-site link)
Review by Candice Weber for Art Talk Chicago, September 6, 2009
Review by Karsten Lund for Flavorpill Chicago, September 5, 2009
Review by Brett McCabe for the Baltimore City Paper, July 8, 2009
Review by Kennth Baker for the San Francisco Chronicle, February 28, 2009
Review by Sean Donovan, Hideous Sunday, March 11, 2009
Review by Johnny Ray Houston, San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 10, 2009
Interview with Tiffany Maleshefski, The San Francisco Examiner, February 26, 2009
Essay on the project by Molly Springfield in NY Arts Magazine.
"This installation is the result of a painstaking process that took Molly Springfield two full years to complete: her own “translation,” entirely in the form of drawings, of the first chapter of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.
Springfield’s project—which San Francisco Chronicle critic Kenneth Baker called an “irresistible” work “of rare conceptual elegance”—consists of 28 individual drawings of photocopies of sequential pages from the first chapter of the novel, pieced together from every existing English translation. This patchwork results in the repetition and omission of text from page to page, resolving into an incomplete and not-fully-readable rendition of the original.
In addition to confronting the inevitable loss that occurs during the process of translation, Springfield’s work is a meditation on the slipperiness of memory, the transformative power of labor, the materiality of language, and the definition of originality.
The installation includes a mixed media, site-specific supplemental work, A Brief Note on the Translation, in which Springfield explores the conceit of playing translator—offering viewers selections from the research and writing that informed her work. In serving the dual purposes of explanatory wall text and artist’s sketchbook, Brief Note underscores the subtle cheekiness inherent in much of Springfield’s work. The text is also intended as the preface for a forthcoming book of the drawings."
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Watch excerpts from a panel discussion with Proust scholar Joshua Landy and art critic Kriston Capps, held on February 2009 (off-site link)
Review by Candice Weber for Art Talk Chicago, September 6, 2009
Review by Karsten Lund for Flavorpill Chicago, September 5, 2009
Review by Brett McCabe for the Baltimore City Paper, July 8, 2009
Review by Kennth Baker for the San Francisco Chronicle, February 28, 2009
Review by Sean Donovan, Hideous Sunday, March 11, 2009
Review by Johnny Ray Houston, San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 10, 2009
Interview with Tiffany Maleshefski, The San Francisco Examiner, February 26, 2009
Essay on the project by Molly Springfield in NY Arts Magazine.
