Bodies in Translation, Art Exhibit
Published May 16, 2023, 2:20 p.m. by Arrik Motley
AMI: Accessible Media Inc. is proud to present Translation art - Bodies in Translation, an art exhibit by artists with disabilities who use translation as their primary means of communication.
This exhibit features the work of ten artists who use a variety of translation methods to create their art. The exhibit includes paintings, sculptures, photography, and video installations.
The artists in this exhibit use translation to express themselves in ways that are often not possible with spoken or written language. Translation art - Bodies in Translation provides viewers with a unique opportunity to see the world through the eyes of artists with disabilities.
AMI: Accessible Media Inc. is a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to making media accessible to people with disabilities. AMI provides accessible versions of popular TV shows, movies, and news programs. AMI also produces original programming that is designed to be accessible to people with disabilities.
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in our next story Laura Bain takes us to
an exhibition at the Mount Saint Vincent
University art gallery called bodies in
translation age and creativity the show
explores aging as it relates to identity
culture sexuality and disability it is
fully accessible in some surprisingly
creative ways let's take a look
bodies in translation age and creativity
features seven artists from around the
Maritimes working in a variety of
disciplines mount saint vincent art
gallery director and co curator of the
show ingrid jank nur explains the
selection process they had to be people
who identify as older adults they had to
be professional artists and then their
work had to have something to do with
aging either as its theme or as its
subject matter or it could engage with
disability in some way this is the first
show at the gallery designed to be
accessible well we use the opportunity
because our partners with this
exhibition are the Nova Scotia Center on
Aging which is a gerontology research
unit on campus as well as bodies in
translation which is a shirk funded
research group on disability arts so
because of their focus on disability we
thought this would be a really great
chance to collaborate with experts and
introduce those themes into our own
presentation practices co-curator Eliza
Chandler designed the shows
accessibility features following
standards she developed at Tangled Art
Gallery in Toronto it was really
important for us to make this this
exhibition fully accessible as well in
addition to having disabled in aging
artists featured in the show and so this
is the work of Cecil game
she is a maker one of the first
accessibility features I experience is
the availability of a gallery volunteer
for live description we started the work
of Cecil day entitled grasses Cecil is
an artist in her early 80s living with
arthritis her prints about vegetation in
different seasons of the year
offer a metaphor for the life stages of
a human being there are six prints
hanging on the wall there were about
four feet wide or a little bit smaller
than that and about three feet high
they're black and white the gallery
staff and the volunteers participated in
a pretty extensive training process
where they learned sort of best
practices around engaging with people
like most of the pieces cecil's work
includes a tactile element she also
provided a plate of her line of print
and to be displayed in a low table so
that anyone could feel the print and
feel the imprint of the print as a way
of experiencing what the print looked
looks like um in a tactile way I think
it's an example of what can emerge
through the ideas that can come about
when we creatively take on the task of
making artwork accessible all of the
artwork is hung at an accessible height
for someone using a mobility device like
a wheelchair
in total the show features about 20
accessible features including ASL
interpretation videos with closed
captions and visual descriptions by the
artist via headset my name is George
Steves and I was born in 1943 a favorite
exhibit of mine is red fragments by
textile artist a Natoma it's a
collaboration with her aunt in Hungary
who experienced a stroke Anna set up a
kind of male collaboration she would
mail her aunt a canvas panel with some
embroidery on it traditional red
Hungarian embroidery and her aunt would
complete the panel send it back and Anna
would send another one and you can
follow the progress of these panels the
aunt was using her hands and tried to
recover from the stroke and eventually
she just weakened and she couldn't
respond any longer I like that touching
the art is encouraged feeling this
scarecrow made of burrs by Omni Nordmann
helps me experience it in a more
intimate way I also enjoy exploring
group on by Michael Fernandes a playful
exhibit of sneakers weights a curtain
rod and a clock in this he kind of tells
us how the process of aging has affected
him and how he's adapted everyday
objects to not very useful purposes as
aids for himself so of course the cane
is a curtain rod doesn't work as a cane
the sneakers are tied together because
they're too beautiful and youthful
looking for him to bring himself to wear
them the clock doesn't work so he makes
fun of himself and of the stereotypical
limitations that are associated with
aging Ingrid says the show has
positively impacted the gallery's
accessibility standards we want to have
are now very well trained attendants
present at all exhibitions in the future
and we are going to be asking artists to
do those audio recordings we're quite
happy that this this is a really big new
step for us introducing accessible
practices and
having an exhibition on a theme like
this and there seems to be some response
from the public all good news for art
lovers in Halifax
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