Turn of Phrase: Language and Translation in Global Contemporary Art

Dates:

December 15, 2022 - June 4, 2023

Location:

Center Gallery, Focus Gallery

This exhibition examines the critical and creative functions of language in global contemporary art from the 1980s to the present.

Selected Works

two gesturing figures with an easel between them and bowls in front of them — *Western Pass,* 1990, oil with silverleaf on wood, ceramics on canvas by Hung Liu, American, born China, 1948–2021. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2021.53. Courtesy Nancy Hoffman Gallery.

an image with letters on a page, with pebbles overlaying the text — *Untitled,* 1992 (detail), paper on altered book with polished pebbles in a lacquered birch and glass case, by Ann Hamilton, American, born 1956. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, archival collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation. 2018.10.139. Courtesy of Ann Hamilton Studio.

A large red carpet with adornments in brass — *Loves Me, Loves Me Not,* 1997, wool carpet and brass “petals” on jute backing by Yukinori Yanagi, Japanese, born 1959. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton "Kippy" Stroud Foundation, 2018.10.430. ©️ YANAGI STUDIO

a horizontal image with Chinese characters inscribed on a sheer, taupe piece of paper — *Quotation from Chairman Mao,* 2001. Chinese ink calligraphy on paper by Xu Bing, Chinese, born 1955. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, with a grant from the Freeman Foundation Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative, 2006.10.1. ©Xu Bing Studio

bundles of open books wrapped with a black band on a pedestal with a bronze plaque — *This is a poetic statement. Identify theelements that construct the poem*. *From the series "The Assignment Books,”* 2011, by Luis Camnitzer. Born 1931. Brass plaque with mixed media. Dimensions variable. Alexander Gray Associates, New York. © 2022 Luis Camnitzer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

an assembage with green horizontal elements at the top and a yellow "body" with writing — *The Anthropophagic Effect, Garment no.3,* 2019, mixed media with cotton, brass grommets, nylon thread, artificial sinew, dried pear gourds, glass and plastic beads, nylon ribbon on canvas, by Jeffrey Gibson, American, born 1972. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2021.63. © Jeffrey Gibson

About

This exhibition examines the critical and creative functions of language in global contemporary art from the 1980s to the present. While language has been fundamental to art-making and human expression from antiquity to the present, its ability to unpack meaning, challenge conventions, and explore hybrid identities is now more relevant than ever. Drawing on the Museum’s permanent collection and highlighting several recent acquisitions, the exhibition provides vibrant examples for how the use of language is embedded in art and its encounter. Turn of Phrase emphasizes language’s capacity for innovation, intervention, and disruption in rewriting artistic landscapes of the past four decades.

The exhibition was made possible by the Stevens L. Frost Endowment Fund and the Sylvia E. Ross Fund for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Read the exhibition object labels here.

Read the press release here.