I found that there was something both lost and gained in the translation of the words.
- Alma Haser
Alma Haser transforms the quirkiness of the German language into sculptural images that blend humour, history, and imagination.
The artist’s playful new series, now showing at the Print Sales Gallery, explores the quirks of German idioms, their origins, and their often-unexpected English translations. Born in 1989 in the Black Forest to a German father and an English mother, Alma Haser grew up bilingual, sparking a fascination with language, wordplay, and the poetic absurdity of literal translations – all of which influence her work.
German sayings, when translated word for word, often take on a strange, dreamlike quality. Expressions like “We are sitting beautifully in the ink” (To be in trouble through one’s own fault) or “To have a tomcat” (to have a hangover) offer Haser a wealth of surreal imagery to explore.
A defining feature of Haser ’s practice is her ability to merges photography with sculptural techniques. Many of the works in this series take shape as three-dimensional pieces, playing with folds, layers, and structures that bring language to life. Haser attributes her sensitivity to the fluidity of words, in part, to her dyslexia—an influence that fuels her inventive approach to language and image.
The manipulation of the image throughout the work, incorporated through the use of paper folding techniques, ceramic sausages and inventive collage, mirrors the evolving nature of the idioms themselves. I found that there was something both lost and gained in the translation of the words.
- Alma Haser
This project not only celebrates bilingualism but also reimagines language as a visual medium. Expanding on the literary tradition of absurdist wordplay, Haser creates a tangible world where the ordinary becomes bizarre and the absurd is presented as reality.
View more works here.
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