Prue & Steve Dixon – Things in Translation: θηρηλοιγός
Prue & Steve Dixon – Things in Translation: θηρηλοιγός
Odysseus is shipwrecked; he is advised to walk inland, carrying his oar, until he reaches a place where people know nothing of the sea. He is told that he will know the place when “another wayfarer, on meeting thee, shall say that thou hast a winnowingfan on thy stout shoulder” (Homer’s The Odyssey). The “winnowing-fan”— θηρηλοιγός in Greek—is a tool that separates wheat from chaff through a wafting movement. It is an air oar, a wind paddle, a thing that becomes another thing when carried across from sea to land, and from one language and culture into another. In its Latin etymology, translation means “to carry across”. This exhibition invents languages and narratives to chart a journey where things become some things else, as they are carried across time, space and imagination, in a series of print works, videos, and dramatic figurine dioramas.