‘A Third Language’
Feb 2023 -
Sep 2023

Whenever we translate from one tongue to another, we arrive at a third form of speech that sits somewhere between the two. This exhibition suggests that we all live and speak through a third language: a hybrid mode borne of the translations and generative mistranslations between words, cultures, and histories.
Featured artworks abound with pattern and repetition, for some artists, this visual multiplicity is used to express the more abstract concept of cultural multiplicity, in which the whole is made from many heterogenous yet interlocking parts.
Artists also explore what happens when artistic traditions roam, mutate and brush up against one another. As images are copied and re-copied in different locations, they become enriched by the inevitable mistranslations or ‘glitches’ in the chain of reproduction. We live in a world of echoes and amalgamations. The artists in ‘A Third Language’ capture this cacophony.
‘A Third Language’ was on display in QAG’s Gallery 5 (Henry and Amanda Bartlett Galleries) and Watermall from 11 February to 9 July 2023.
Feature image: Iman Raad’s Days of bliss and woe 2018 / Purchased 2018 with funds from Tim Fairfax AC through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / © Iman Raad
Collection artworks featured in ‘A Third Language’

Days of bliss and woe 2018
- RAAD, Iman - Creator

Mary 2011
- IATAPAL CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Mary 2011
- IATAPAL CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Mary 2011
- IATAPAL CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Mary 2011
- IATAPAL CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Mary 2011
- IATAPAL CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Mary 2011
- IATAPAL CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Tokatokoi 2011
- VUNAPAKA CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Tokatokoi 2011
- VUNAPAKA CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Tokatokoi 2011
- VUNAPAKA CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Tokatokoi 2011
- VUNAPAKA CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Tokatokoi 2011
- VUNAPAKA CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Tokatokoi 2011
- VUNAPAKA CULTURAL GROUP - Creator

Hi inlander 1999
- JAARSMA, Mella - Creator

Allegorical painting (from 'Works from the People's Republic of Spiritual Revolution' series) 1989
- BENNETT, Gordon - Collaborating artist
- CARCHESIO, Eugene - Collaborating artist

The great necrophiliac (from 'Works from the People's Republic of Spiritual Revolution' series) 1989
- BENNETT, Gordon - Collaborating artist
- CARCHESIO, Eugene - Collaborating artist

Untitled (from 'Works from the People's Republic of Spiritual Revolution' series) 1989
- BENNETT, Gordon - Collaborating artist
- CARCHESIO, Eugene - Collaborating artist

Untitled (from 'Works from the People's Republic of Spiritual Revolution' series) 1989
- BENNETT, Gordon - Collaborating artist
- CARCHESIO, Eugene - Collaborating artist

The small brown house (with test patterns for thought) (from 'Works from the People's Republic of Spiritual Revolution' series) 1989
- BENNETT, Gordon - Collaborating artist
- CARCHESIO, Eugene - Collaborating artist

The School of Arts (imaginary landscape) (from 'Works from the People's Republic of Spiritual Revolution' series) 1989
- BENNETT, Gordon - Collaborating artist
- CARCHESIO, Eugene - Collaborating artist

Rhythm of the Gods 2 date unknown
- UNKNOWN - Creator

Species date unknown
- UNKNOWN - Creator

Operation Scorpio date unknown
- UNKNOWN - Creator

My Father's Love 2 date unknown
- UNKNOWN - Creator

A Chinese Ghost Story date unknown
- UNKNOWN - Creator

From one cloth 1987
- JOHNSON, Tim - Creator

Tala 2005
- VONGPOOTHORN, Savanhdary - Artist
- VONGPOOTHORN, Mungsamai - Collaborating artist

Number three 2004
- BENNETT, Gordon - Creator

Number twelve 2007
- BENNETT, Gordon - Creator

Gumatj larrakitj 2008
- YUNUPINGU, Yalpi - Creator

Interloper 2009
- AUSTIN, Lincoln - Creator

Nomads 2014
- BATJARGAL, Baatarzorig - Creator
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