Understanding of misunderstanding: visualizing
metaphors for the untranslatable
Utako Shindo Kanai, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Abstract: In this paper, I discuss the notion of the ‘untranslatable’ and how it can be visualized and materialized bymeans of art. Where an art practice can operate as a unique language for the ‘untranslatable’ both artists and observers
can be liberated from communicating meanings. In the spatiality of the distance in-between, translational processes cantake place through certain manners, and grow to attain the unified ‘pure’ language. The remainders of these processes
carry a sense of beauty and ambiguity, which can be recognized as medium for visual art. These qualities are, indeed,difficult to articulate in words but able to be experienced. They continue to shift in various degrees and open possibilities
for understandings. Having been inspired by my previous trans-cultural art practice as well as Walter Benjamin’s essay“The Task of Translator” and Derrida’s interpretation of this essay, this paper further explores other writings thatconcern related ideas such as shadows, and methods such as print that can embody metaphors for the ‘untranslatable’.
Keywords: The untranslatable, Visualization, Spatiality

IntroductionT

his short paper discusses the notion of the ‘untranslatable’, as it forms a part of my PhD
interdisciplinary research, which is both practice and theory based, situated in the context
of global art-making and academic research.
The word ‘translation’ has been applied and used in visual art to describe the process
of visualization and the perception of images. The art historian E.H. Gombrich writes, “For theartist, too, cannot transcribe what he sees; he can only translate it into the terms of his medium.”1
A viewer of an artwork is also understood to take on a similar process. “Those who look at worksof painting and drawing must have the imitative faculty,”2 as they understand it according towhat they have already known. In addition, it can be said that some artworks ‘translate’ ideas andconcepts into images and forms.
I have noticed that the growth of the global art and academic research cultures require
further ‘translation’ in art. The concepts and contexts of artworks are exchanged andcommunicated between different natural languages, among artists, curators, critics and observers.
In this situation where the English language often dominates, being translatable into English is
welcomed as it ensures our understandings are communicated and shared across the networks ofinstitutions and markets. At the same time, mistranslation and misreading also considered‘interesting’ as ‘creative’ interpretation, while they potentially alter a meaning that is true toartwork.
However, as an artist, researcher, and sometime translator, through my practice in the lastten years between cultures and languages, I became aware of something strange but fascinatingin these processes of translation. That is the ‘untranslatable’. An artwork seems to embody
something that resists translation. I mean by the ‘untranslatable’ that which cannot be exchanged
between art and written and verbal languages, or English and Japanese in my own context.
Hence, the ‘untranslatable’ is left after those translation processes, which is not possible tovisualize, comprehend or conceptualize. Yet, artwork that is ‘untranslatable’ touches me as
possessing a truthfulness. It is a kind of truth that is not for everyone in a factual sense, but foreach individual who is touched by it. It accepts ‘I’ as I am, and even accepts ‘I’ as
1
2

E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion. Millennium Edition. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 36.
Ibd. 203.

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misunderstanding of what I am, in other words, the complexity of being myself (what I am).
This observation prompted my PhD research, which requires that it be based on mypractice as well as theory. The investigation and experience of the ‘untranslatable’ in art could
only begin from a personal place, which is highly complex. In addition, as I have just discussedthe ‘untranslatable’ in English, my research is here trying to stay optimistic about the status ofbeing immersed in the curious yet relentless difficulty of translating the ‘untranslatable’ throughthe very act of translation. It is because I can be both alarmed by and attuned to the difficulty ofthe ‘untranslatable’ that calls me to work through the many struggles of art. Discussing the‘untranslatable' in my writing enables me to draw attention to the fact that not everything can betranslated into English, the dominant langue of the global art world. My research project istherefore aimed at shedding light on ‘what cannot be translated’ through processes in visual art,with a focus on developing a methodology that can embody the ‘untranslatable’.

Metaphors for the 'untranslatable'
How, then, do I materialize the ‘untranslatable’ in a visual art practice? This led me to investigate
metaphors for the ‘untranslatable’, which can be found in texts and artworks. I must admit that I
will not be able to adequately describe the ‘untranslatable’ in my writing, simply because of its
untranslatability. My research project requires the practice components, which more successfully
embodies the strangeness of the untranslatable. However, ‘metaphors’ expressed in words haveoffered groundings that allows me to attempt my arguments in verbal and written formats. The
metaphors for the untranslatable, as used by Benjamin and Derrida, namely the ceramic vessel
the tower of Babel, are also limited to the visual, the spatial and the temporal. They are
specifically relevant to my art practice and experience, which generally takes place as durationaland spatial visual phenomena.
Walter Benjamin’s essay The task of translator and Jacque Derrida’s interpretation of thisessay have been inspiring, as Benjamin’s essay considers translation to be rigorous “even if they
were untranslatable by human beings.” Benjamin questions “the translatability of linguistic
construction” and asks, “mustn’t they actually be untranslatable to a certain degree, if a rigorous
concept of translation is applied?” 3 He thinks that there is a “greater (or pure) language”, whichis untranslatable but can be attained by translation, in other words what he calls the “sacred
growth of language”. In analyzing the story of the tower of Babel from the Old Testament,
Derrida argues that, “The city would bear the name of God the father and of the father of the citythat is called confusion”4 and that, “He at the same time imposes and forbids translation.”5 In thisway, translation can be a sacred and painful experience simultaneously.
Even though Benjamin and Derrida refer to the biblical texts while I personally do not share
their religious background, I relate to how these thinkers observe the ‘untranslatable’ throughtranslational processes. Benjamin discusses ‘literal’ translation as an ideal manner.
Just as fragments of a vessel, in order to be fitted together, must correspond to eachother in the tiniest details but need not resemble each other, so translation… must
lovingly, and in detail, fashion in its own language a counterpart to the originals modeof intention, in order to make both of them recognizable as fragments of a vessel, as
fragments of a greater language. (Benjamin 1923)6

3

Steven Rendall. tarns.“The translator’s task, Walter Benjamin.” (Traduction, terminologie, redaction. vol.10, n2, 1997),
152.
4Joseph F. Graham, trans. “Des Tours de Babel, Jacques Derrida,” Difference in Translation. (Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press, 1985), 167.
5
Ibd.170
6
Steven Rendall, tarns.“The translator’s task, Walter Benjamin,” (Traduction, terminologie, redaction. vol.10, n2, 1997),
161.

Kanai: Understanding of misunderstanding

This passage reminds me of my curatorial project undertaken in a trans-cultural context
between 2010 and 2012. I struggled to communicate the concept of the project, expressed as
Immanent landscape in English and 内在の風景 in Japanese. With each translation of theconcept it felt as though something was missing or incomplete. Indeed, it made sense most, when
the two languages were jointed as ‘Immanent landscape – 内在の風景'. The exhibition of the
project can be also explained as being comprised in a similar manner. The individual works,
produced in different locations across three years by eight artists from Japan and Australia, were
carefully installed by a proper distance in between, neither being separated nor mixed up, as if
they are fragments of one larger work as whole [Fig.1].

Figure 1: The exhibition view, ‘Immanent Landscape—内在の風景’, Japan Foundation Gallery
Sydney, 2012
Source: photographed by Sue Blackburn
In this project, although the process of ‘translation’ often felt painful, I intuited something
in the distance and worked towards it. It can be said that it is in this space of ‘distance’ that mytranslation, as an art practice, took place. Benjamin writes,… it is translation that is ignited by the eternal continuing life of the work and theendless revival of language in order to constantly test this sacred growth of languages,
to determine how distant what is hidden within them is from revelation, how close it
might become with knowledge of this distance. (Benjamin, 1923)7
Derrida also considers that the ‘knowledge of this distance’ enables translators to relate to the‘pure language’. “Though this situation can be consider purely extreme one, it does not eliminate
various degrees, latency, intervals or space in-between.”8 From their discussions, I can picture a

7

Steven Rendall, tarns.“The translator’s task, Walter Benjamin.” (Traduction, terminologie, redaction. vol.10, n2, 1997),
157.
8
Jacques Derrida, Derrida Au Japon, translated by the author (Tokyo: Housei University Publishing, 2011), 57.

The International Journal of the Image

figure of a translator, as being situated in a kind of ‘spatiality’, which is metaphorically visual,
being embedded as ‘various degrees’, ‘latency’, ‘intervals’ and ‘space in-between’.
The photograph bellow was taken when I was experiencing such ‘spatiality’ of the‘untranslatable’ [Fig.2]. I was looking at a distant scene from the hospital window with mygrandmother, and she, who was on the threshold of dementia, misunderstood a mountain in thescenery for another mountain. However, the way she described what she saw felt so beautiful andconvincing that there felt something untranslatable yet emotionally true in what I was seeing in
the distance through her eyes. In this situation, she was an artist and I became an observer of her
view.

Figure 2: The photograph taken in the hospital, Tokyo, August 2012
Source: photographed by the author

Distance and Spatiality
Here, I review Jacques Rancière text entitled The Emancipated Spectator. He considers the‘distance’ “inherent in the performance (…teaching, playing, speaking, writing, making art orlooking at it) itself”9, and recognized the distance as “an autonomous thing between the idea of
the artist and the sensation or comprehension of the spectator.” 10 His argument confirms
important perspectives for ‘translation’ in art, which the distance between an artist and an
observer can liberate from communicating meanings. The distance, as ‘spatiality’, is empty spaceon its own, yet because of the emptiness it can open and welcome all kinds of things, including
my grandmother’s misunderstanding, and my emotional response. Rancière writes, “The capacity
for an individual to translate what she perceives in her own way is exercised through the
distance.”119Jacques Rancière, The Emancipated Spectator. (N.Y.:Verso Books, 2009), 17.
Ibd. 14
11
Ibd. 1610

Kanai: Understanding of misunderstanding

Based on my experience of co-looking at a distant scene with my grandmother, I
created an installation piece, entitled Understanding of Misunderstanding. Throughinterpreting her personal milieu constructed by a history of her hundred lived years, I
interwove my short history of engaging with places by connecting horizontal lines andmountain ridges and juxtaposing similar shapes that appear on various imageries [Fig.4].
The sculptures, which are set on an acrylic sheet, created shadows in different shades on a
blank sheet of paper, and as well as reflections on the acrylic sheet [Fig.3]. The space
between sculptures, shadows and reflections, and the sheet of acrylic and paper mediatedand opened ‘distance’. In this particular spatiality observers were invited to interpret thework.

Fig.3-4 Understanding of misunderstanding, 2013, collage with mixed media, paper clay,

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Acrylic board, frame / dimension variable
Source: photographed by the author
In a similar way, the ancient Greek concept of ‘chora’ and the Japanese spatio-temporalconcept of ‘ma’ offer receptive ‘spatiality’. The word chora can be considered as an empty
container, and ma can be understood as an empty space in-between. In a sense they imply thesimilar situation but they are ‘similarly’ hard to be defined in other languages. These notions
therefore imply the ‘untranslatable’ through their gaps in meanings. Derrida argued in theInternational conference for the architecture, entitled Anyone, in response to those who triedtranslating these notions into each other.
The place for translation is untranslatable. And if we define ma as a place fortranslation, it’s a place for translation, not only translation in the sematic, linguistic
sense, but translation as transfer from, for movements, transference of objects fromothers, and so forth... And you cannot translate ma into chora and so on and so forth.
But there are places of translations, for translations which are not translatable. (Derrida,1991)12In the context of architecture, Derrida discusses that “Every or any architectural event takes
place in a place, in a singular place, which is a place for translation and is a place that is an
untranslatable place.” I think that this architectural event can take place not only in a ‘building’but an artwork, where the ‘untranslatable’ can be also attained in a particular spatiality: the‘distance’ between objects and observers, ‘various degrees’ of shades, ‘latency’ felt through thesurface, and ‘space in-between’ movements. In this way, an artwork can be also considered as aplace for translational event, structured by its own architecture, and experienced through one’s
gaze with shifting light.
In 2014, I created an installation piece, entitled Distancing for Opening, to be presented in
the bookstore for art and architecture. I particularly considered sacred spatiality, as it is designed
to be experienced only from the distance with longing. The architecture of print consists of layersof materials that are peeled and grounded. Each layer touches the surfaces of others, from back tofront, and from edge to edge. The touched and untouched surfaces demarcate the space for art
from the rest. My work, located in the middle of bookstore, dwells to protect sacred. Pieces oftimber are stretching horizontally and vertically to hold surfaces [Fig.5]. Shadows and reflections
surface across sheets of acrylic, paper and copper [Fig.6]. These obscure medium touch viewers’eyes, at their very height, from the distance.

12“Discussion A-1”, Anyone. Ed. Anyone Corporation. (New York: Rizzoli International Publication, 1991), 90.

Kanai: Understanding of misunderstanding

Fig.5-6 Distancing for Opening, 2014, Oak, Acrylic sheet, Inkjet print on etching paper /60.5x73x154(H)cm
Source: photographed by Christian Capuroo

Remainders and Degrees
Derrida further discusses the notion of the ‘’ through his exploration into the truth in painting. In
his introductory chapter, entitled Passe-Partout, he defined what “remains” as “theuntranslatable.”13 He argues,

13

Jacque Derrida, “Passe-partout,” The Truth in Painting. trans. Geoff Bennington & Ian McLeod. (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1987), 4.

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But untranslatable, it remains in its economic performance, in the ellipsis of its trait, theword by word, the word for word, or the trait for trait in which it contracts… (Derrida,1978)14This way of reducing the information, which pays attention to every mark and line, is reminiscentof a familiar aesthetic attitude in visual art. When all the unnecessarily elements are removed, thesense of beauty becomes embodied in every trait.
In my studio, I have been experimenting to visualize such remainders. By using sheets oftracing paper and oil sticks, I transfer the layers of colors, applied onto a sheet of thick paper, toother sheets of thinner paper. I continue transferring the colors until there are no more layers thatcan be transferred. To do so, I put pressure by drawing a short line from the reserve side of a thin
tracing paper with a blank ink pen. When the bundle of short lines covers the entire surface ofcolored area, I change papers to peel off another layer [Fig.7-10]. At the end of the process, theoriginally colored thick paper is left embossed and colorless [Fig.11]. The ‘remainder’ appeared
to be somewhat beautiful and ambiguous. It looks almost like a skin of something, or a shadowof something, left after some kind of transformation. Through this manner, which applies
printing and drawing methods, I intend towards embodying the metaphors of the ‘untranslatable’.

14

Idb. 5

Kanai: Understanding of misunderstanding

Fig.7-11 (title to be confirmed), 2014, tracing paper, oil pen, blank ink pen / 21 x 27 cm
Source: photographed by the author
In my studio experiment, through observing how the ‘remainder’ can be materialized, an
emergence of some kind of transformation, like a cast-off skin or a cast shadow, is also
witnessed. In his catalogue essay for the exhibition, entitled Shadow Play, the art historianThorsten Sadowsky discusses a shadow and its fleeting existence. He writes,
The shadow is dependent on a minimum of light to make us aware of its fleeting
existence. Thus shadows are traces left by an encounter with light; they provide
information on the constitution of the shadow-casting objects. (Sadowsky, 2005)15
This ‘fleeting’ existence of shadow is unable to be touched but experienced through one’s vision.
In this sense, the shadow can also be considered a visual metaphor for the ‘untranslatable’ that
one cannot grasp. The subtler the shadow is, the more it feels sacred. The more various thedegrees of shades are, the more ambiguous and mysterious they look. Yet, speaking of shadows,
the cast objects should not be always the untranslatable ‘god’ but any ‘things’ including ourbodies, and our sense of being.
Shadows show distorted and different shapes from what we should know about the objects
that cast them. Hence, a shadow is not an exact copy but a ‘translation’ of the original. Here,
Gombrich’s statement is recalled, that “an artist cannot copy what he sees: he can only translate itwith media.”16 And he continues to writes, “... it is restricted by the variation of shades which is
subject to each medium,”17 Hence, I consider ‘shadow’, for what its rich ‘variation of shades’, asa medium for a visual art practice. In addition, in terms of ‘variation of shades’, ‘reflections’ canbe also included to this medium. Indeed, the Japanese author, Junichiro Tanizaki, in his shortessay titled In praise of shadows, observes that shadows as well as reflection, are “various
degrees of shades.”18
15
Thorsten Sadowsky, “Of Shadows, Doppelganger and Caves,” Shadow Play. Edit. Kunsthallen Brands Klaedefabrik(Denmark: Kunsthallen Brands Klaedefabrik, 2005), 25.
16
E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion. Millennium Edition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 73.
17
Ibd. 73
18
Junichiro Tanizaki, Innei Raisan - In praise of shadows (Tokyo: Chuoukoron-Sinsha, INC., 1975), 32

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My work, Pretend not to see, emerged from commuting between my temporal residency
studio in Yokohama and my residence in Tokyo. In these distant locations I observed shadowsand reflections that exist commonly but appear differently, and became aware of the sense of‘what cannot be translated’ from one location to another. Thus, I employed water and light asephemeral ‘materials’ and used the architectural features around the studio to structure theephemeral. By tracing window frames with strings and fabrics, the light coming through thewindows was translated into shades: as projected shadows and reflections on the wall and floor
surfaces [Fig.12&14]. The seawater drawn from the bay outside of the studio was poured into awater tank, and the footage of the sea projected onto the wall [Fig.13]. As a result of theseattempts, different degrees of shifting images in similar shapes surfaced across the studioenvironment. The entire installation became a device to capture the ephemeral and materialize
the intangible shades yet it also appeared empty and open, into which audiences were invited toencounter with ‘fleeting’ existence that is almost unnoticeable.

Figure 12-14: Pretend not to see, 2013, string, fabric, paper, wall, floor, window, mirror, water, tank,projector, clay, etc. / dimension variable
Source: photographed by the author

Kanai: Understanding of misunderstanding

Conclusion
By investigating the notion of the ‘untranslatable’ and how it can be metaphorically embodied ina work of art, this paper examined metaphors for the untranslatable and methodologies that canembody the ‘untranslatable’.
As Benjamin called ‘translation’ “sacred growth of language” that attains towards “greater(or pure) languages”, I have explored translational process in visual art through a ‘literal’manners: by connecting pieces of paper or different locations, lines and shapes; transforming
ephemeral materials from one condition to another; and transferring colors between different
surfaces. In so doing, I intended to articulate art as a unique language and experience that takeplace in a particular spatiality that is untranslatable.
I have identified several metaphors for the ‘untranslatable’ applicable to art, such as‘distance’, ‘various degrees’, ‘remainders’ and ‘degrees of shades’. When they are embodied in
my artworks, it feels that the works carry a sense of beauty and ambiguity around them, as if they
mediate translation receptively. These qualities are, indeed, difficult to articulate in words but areable to characterize the language of art. While the ‘untranslatable’ remains, in the spatiality
between artworks and observers, the possibilities are open for continuously shifting
understandings.

The International Journal of the ImageREFERENCES
Gombrich, E.H. 2000. Art and Illusion (Millennium Edition), Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Derrida, Jacque. 1987. “Passe-partout”, The Truth in Painting, trans. Geoff Bennington & Ian
McLeod. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 1-13.
Rancière, Jacques. 2007. The Emancipated Spectator. N.Y.:Verso Books.
Graham, Joseph F. trans. 1985. “Des Tours de Babel, Jacques Derrida.” Difference inTranslation. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press: 165-207.
Tanizaki, Junichiro. 1975. Innei Raisan - In praise of shadows. Tokyo: Chuoukoron-Sinsha, INC.
Rendall, Steven. 1997. tarns.“The translator’s task, Walter Benjamin.” Traduction, terminologie,
redaction. vol.10, n2.: 151-165.
Sadowsky, Thorsten. 2005. “Of Shadows, Doppelganger and Caves.” Shadow Play. Edited.
Kunsthallen Brands Klaedefabrik. Denmark: Kunsthallen Brands Klaedefabrik: 25-30.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Utako Shindo Kanai: Artist, and PhD candidate at The Centre for Ideas, Faculty of
VCA&MCM, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. (www.utakoshindo.info)