/other/6.2
I can’t find the words to tell people how I feel because the people who made the language are my oppressors (installation)
Architecture Fringe 2021 Open ProgrammeMany Studios, Glasgow, 09.06-12.06
Installation with video projection and soundtrack
“Yes, we are diverse, vibrant, colourful... but are we not more than that?”
Language is commonly perceived as the foundation for human interaction, but it is easily corrupted, used as a tool to (in)validate the experiences of people of colour and incorrectly ‘translate’ norms that fall outside of Western
culture.
With this installation, /other investigates
language through the deconstruction of select words or statements chosen by our collaborators. By capturing the aspects of our lives deemed ‘untranslatable’ when
viewed through a Eurocentric lens, we mark out a space that taps into our
personal and (a)political lived experiences, normally reserved for the white
establishment within architecture and design. These ‘deconstructions’, moving in
and out of the limitations of the English language, are less about the resulting
visuals, and more about the process and cathartic properties of mark-making. As
they are projected onto multiple sheets of fabric, the gradual change in clarity
reflects not only the layered yet selective visual language used in architectural
drawing, but the power of the dominant culture - of which the architecture
establishment is part of - to pick and choose aspects of ‘the other’ deemed
appropriate and easy to (mis)interpret.
With contributions from
Divya Shah
Dorica Santos
Pavandip Sian
Commissioned by
New Practice
With thanks to
Elisa Pierrisnard
Photos courtesy of
Adam Stent
Mia Pinder-Hussein
Robb Mcrae