TRANSLATING PRACTICE Brigit Connolly A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Royal College of Art for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2017 Royal College of Art COPYRIGHT This text represents the submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Royal College of Art. This copy has been supplied for the purpose of research for private study, on the understanding that it is copyright material, and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgment. 2 ABSTRACT Translatability and translation, the possibility and act of conveying some thing between people, objects, languages, cultures, times, spaces and media, have become increasingly important elements of creative practice and works of art. My research explores this proposition. To contextualise this concept of translation as an artistic and critical method mediating the relationship of the seeable to the sayable I retrace an under-mined vein of translation that grew from the Enlightenment, the Early (Jena) Romantic response to it and its subsequent development through Walter Benjamin to other modern theorists. I suggest that this tradition of translation has developed into a creative method that assumes a pre-existent given from which it evolves in order to destabilise, re-appropriate and make-new. The thesis argues that art has come to occupy the space of translation and proposes that an interpretative mode is ultimately antithetical to a form of thought engaged with in the creative process. This relies on the understanding of a qualitative distinction between acts of translation as presentational and of interpretation as representational. The distinction is not clear-cut since these two forms of mediation operate on a continuum. The probable root of “interpret” in English is “between prices” and derives from trade. This etymology stresses the transactional, hermeneutic role of the interpreter as a responsive agent that negotiates between distinct value systems to ensure equivalence during the process of exchange. While Interpretation operates primarily within the symbolic aspect of language translation retains a relationship to metaphor, which acknowledges that during transfer something becomes something that it literally is not. It must therefore also account for Aporia, or what fails to cross over and for a-signifying, singular aspects that affect or alter the symbolic during this process. In contrast to interpretation, translation’s relation to subjectivity, its resistance to schematisation and reduction to the accurate, objective and rational transfer of information provides a prophylaxis of doubt and generates heterogeneity. 3 The thesis triangulates my practices as artist, translator and critic using translation to destabilise and re-calibrate the relationship of theory to practice. In relation to theory, rather than use this to explain, interpret, or categorize art, it advocates the translational practice of placing in parallel so that lines of thought may be drawn from one to the other, responding to and setting up points of intersection, divergence and congruence to encourage a non-hierarchical associative-dissociative dismantling. Translation informs the research method, structure and content of the thesis, which occupies an inter-theoretical, inter-disciplinary or matrixial space. As such, it is edified through a process that derives from and displays the translational method and diverse sources that constitute it. Four case studies bring together practices employing a translational method from different periods, cultures, creative practices and theoretical sources: Bernard Leach and Ezra Pound’s modernist projects; Jorge Luis Borges’ theory of translation and Briony Fer’s re-presentation of Eva Hesse’s studio work; the Brazilian poets Haroldo and Agosto De Campos’ theory of Cannibalistic translation and painter Adriana Varejao’s work with tiles; and ceramicist Alison Britton in light of Donald Winnicott’s concept of transitional spaces. 4 CONTENTS ABSTRACT 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 9 INTRODUCTION 12 CHAPTER 1 A TRADITION OF TRANSLATION 22 CHAPTER 2 TRANSLATION AND AUTHENTICITY 73 CHAPTER 3 TRANSLATION AND PRACTICE 135 CHAPTER 4 TRANSLATION AND SENSE 177 CHAPTER 5 TRANSLATION AND TRANSITION 222 IN CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY 294 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chapter 2 Translation and Authenticity Figure 1. Moon Jar, Korea, Joseon Dynasty, 18th century British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online /collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?as setId=167355001&objectId=1333756&partId=1 p.71 Figure 2. Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry (1920), ed. by Ezra Pound (San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1968), p.33. p. 92 Figure 3. Leach Pottery Standard Ware (1946), Catalogue insert showing jugs, plates, mugs, bowls and serving dishes. Reproduced from Emanuel Cooper, Bernard Leach: Life and Work: Yale, 2003, p. 206. p.123 Chapter 3 Translation as Practice Figure 4. Installation photographs: Juan Cruz is Translating Don Quijote (again) 2005, at Peer Gallery, London. Reproduced from: http://www.peeruk.org/juan-cruz/ (accessed July 2017) p. 153 Figure 5. Mel Bochner, Perspective Insert (Collapsed Centre), 1967, gelatin silver print mounted on aluminium. Board. Fer, Briony, Eva Hesse Studiowork, The Fruitemarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 73. p. 161 Figure 6. Eva Hesse, Studiowork (Installation shot), Camden Arts Centre, 2010, Andy Keate. p.167 Figure 7. Lygia Clark working in her studio, 1967-68, Briony Fer, p. 186. p.169 Figure 8. Gabriel Orozco, Working Table, 2005, Briony Fer, p. 189. p.170 Figure 9. Eva Hesse Studiowork (Installation shot), courtesy of Camden Arts Centre, Andy Keate, 2010. p.171 6 Figure 10. Eva Hesse Studiowork (Installation shot), courtesy of Camden Arts Centre, Andy Keate, 2010. p.172 Figure 11. Table in Eva Hesse’s apartment. Part of an unfinished artists’ working tables project, Mel Bochner, 1968-69, Briony Fer, p. 48. p. 174 Figure 12. Sketch for When Attitudes Become Form, at the ICA in 1967, reproduced from Briony Fer, The Infinite Line (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.When Attitudes becomes form at the ICA London 1969, Tate Archive London. Reproduced on p.184 The Infinite Line. p. 175 Chapter 4 Translation and Sense Figure 13. View of courtyard behind the Naples Museum of Antiquities, taken from the window facing a mosaic of a painting of the Battle of Issus - attributed to Apelles - found in the House of the Faun at Pompeii. My image. April 2012 p. 184 Figure 14. Shrine to Diego Maradona in a coffee bar, Naples, April, 2012 My image. p. 185 Figure 15. Pudizia, (1752) Antonio Corradini p. 187 https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Corradini#/medi a/File:Pudicizia,_Cappella_Sansevero.jpg Figure 16. Disinganno, (1753-54) Francesco Queirolo p. 187 https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappella_Sansevero#/me dia/File:Disinganno,_Cappella_Sansevero.jpg Figure 17. Detail of maze in marble floor designed by Francesco Celebrano, mid 1760s to c. 1771, Capella Sansevero de’ Sangri, Naples) p. 189 Figure 18. Detail of folds: The Veiled Christ, Guiseppe Sanmartino, 1753, Capella Sansevero, Naples p. 190 Figure 19. Proposal for a Catechesis Series, Part I, Death and Dismemberment, diptych, 1993. p.211 http://www.adrianavarejao.net/category/category/paintin gs-series 7 Figure 20. Tile work with live flesh, 1999, Oil on canvas and polyurethane on aluminium and wood support, 220 x 160 x 50cm p.215 http://www.adrianavarejao.net/category/category/paintin gs-series Figure 21. Linda da Lapa, 2004, Jerked-beef Ruin series, Aluminium, Polyurethane and oil paint. 400 x 170 x 120 cm p.217 http://www.adrianavarejao.net/category/category/paintin gs-series Figure 22. The Guest, 2004. Oil on Canvas, 45 x 70 cm p. 219 http://www.adrianavarejao.net/category/category/paintin gs-series Figure 23. The Seducer, 2004, oil on canvas, 230 x 530cm. p. 220 http://www.adrianavarejao.net/category/category/paintin gs-series Chapter 5 Translation and Transition Figure 24. Diagram illustrating Transitional objects and Transitional Phenomena. Playing and Reality, Winnicott, 1971, p.16. p. 224 Figure 25. Photograph of the Ed Wolf Collection at his company offices in Highgate. 2013. My Image p. 246 Figure 26. Test Tiles 2012 - My Image. p. 257 Figure 27. Works in Progress including Runnel and Overspill with Britton’s mother’s Chair 2012 - My Image p. 258 Figure 28. Work in Progress: Influx, Runnel and Outpour, View through Window - 2012 My Image p. 261 Figure 29. Shigiraki Pot (Unfinished) - My Image p. 263 Figure 30. Works in Progress: Outflow and Cave, 2012. My Image p. 271 Figure 31. Works in Progress: Outpour 2012. My Image p. 271 Figure 32. Tall Scrawl. 2009. Photograph © Philip Sayer courtesy of Marsden Woo Gallery p.275 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my supervisors Jonathan Miles and Martina Margetts. I am grateful for their ongoing engagement with my work since tutoring my MA dissertation at the RCA, their continued encouragement, trust in the potential of my research and writing and critical support. Their generosity and thoughtful advice has been crucial in sustaining me through the PhD. Thanks are also due to my MA tutor Annie Cattrell, Alison Britton, Leonie Kelleher and Dr Harriet Edwards for the engaging and stimulating conversations and collaborations; to Chantal Faust and to fellow PhD students, who through the Humanities Research Forum created a place for the exchange of ideas and collaboration; and to Jane Pavitt and David Crowley for setting up the Humanities Event Fund, which allowed me to co-convene the poiεsis | tεchne | prαxis series of seminars with Dionea Rocha Watt and to learn so much from this experience. My thanks also go to all the tutors at the Royal College of Art who were welcoming to my queries, sat at my exams or WIP presentations, or made time for a chat: Dr Claire Pajaczkowska, Juan Cruz, Barry Curtis, Lucy Soutter and Joe Kerr. I would like to acknowledge the kind assistance from Ana Pereira (School of Humanities), as well as the help from the other administrators in the Humanities and from the Library, especially Cathy Johns.