Verse / Us: Language and Power

×

Expand

Courtesy the artist.

Detail from "s – ee – a – h," by Nina Ghanbarzadeh, 2014. Pin on foam board mounted on wood panel, four panels, each panel 6-by-6 inches.

Stepping deftly over linguistic determinism, this art exhibit explores the power of language to influence our individual lives and societal institutions. Works by UW-Madison glassblower Helen Lee and Milwaukee artist Nina Ghanbarzadeh explore phrases that don’t quite translate from Chinese and Farsi. Artist books by Julie Chen, Tuesday Smillie and Chelsea Thompto, plus paintings by Matthew Owen Wead, continue a conversation between text and visual art that’s surely to be the talk of the town. Open through October 19.

press release: Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) is pleased to announce the opening of a new invitational group exhibition entitled Verse / Us: Language and Power. This is a show about how language shapes our identities and the world that we live in, featuring a variety of media and the work of six artists: Julie Chen, Nina Ghanbarzadeh, Helen Lee, Tuesday Smillie, Chelsea Thompto, and Matthew Owen Wead.

Verse / Us: Language and Power will open on Saturday, September 7, 2019, with a reception from 7-9 pm at ALL. A second reception will take place on Gallery Night, Oct. 4, 5-9 pm. This event is free and open to the public. The exhibition will be on view until October 19, 2019. 

Language and discourse serve to construct and manipulate concepts of power in society. Institutions and individuals alike use language to strengthen their ideological interests, preserve authority over others, and lead the change in social practices, relationships, and values. In differing ways, these artists explore how art, text, and language affect our daily lives and the art that they create.

One aspect of this is the difficulty of translating colloquialisms and certain phrases between languages. The challenges of this can be seen in the work of Helen Lee and Nina Ghanbarzadeh, who create visual works in Chinese and Farsi, respectively. Another form of artistic exploration of language is the artist book, perhaps the most intuitive marriage of art and text. This exhibition includes dynamic and interactive artist books by Julie Chen, Chelsea Thompto, and Tuesday Smillie. Considering how text is transformed into a visual object itself in an artwork is at the nexus of art and language, and it is this relationship that is transgressed in the work of Matthew Owen Wead whose paintings explore this shift. 

Verse / Us was curated by Jenie Gao, Mallory Shotwell, and Elizabeth Shoshany Anderson. “This show considers how we define ourselves through language,” says Shoshany Anderson, “In this political moment, it is compelling to examine the ways in which art can question hegemony of institutions in our society.”

About Arts + Literature Laboratory:

Admission to exhibitions at Arts + Literature Laboratory is free. Located in the Schenk's Corners area, Arts + Literature Laboratory is a community art space for visual, literary, and performing artists to share their work and create new connections. Arts + Literature Laboratory is open during gallery hours, events, and exhibition openings. Fall gallery hours are Thursday and Friday 10:00am-4:00pm, Saturday 11:00am-3:00pm, and by appointment.