Language is not Transparent (Italian / English)

While many conceptual artists used language as a vehicle through which to express a set of ideas and convey meaning, Mel Bochner challenged this practice, most notably through his renowned work, Language Is Not Transparent. Although Bochner’s first installment of this painting occupied the walls of the famous Dwan Gallery in 1970, he has remade it several times since in a variety of different forms and settings. For this exhibition, Bochner superimposed the work’s signature text (“1. Language Is Not Transparent”) with the same phrase in Italian (“1. Il Linguaggio Non È Trasparente”). The black paint, applied directly on the wall, frames the work while its residual drips cascade towards the floor, aided by gravity alone. It is significant that Bochner chose to abandon the use of canvas entirely. While artists have utilized text in paintings since the start of Cubism, Bochner unsettles this avant-garde tradition by forgoing a canvas support for his words and, with it, the tendency to pictorialize language. Instead, he brings them directly into the viewers’ space to be experienced and confronted in their present moment. This ultimately renders the work more reminiscent of graffiti than a conventional painting. Indeed, Bochner has cited the wall writings of the May 1968 student uprisings in Paris as one inspiration. By layering the text in this work through transfer sketching, it becomes more opaque than transparent, almost undecipherable without patience. This artistic decision coupled with the choice to leave ongoing dribbles of untouched black paint signals that, as Bochner has said, “The work of understanding is never complete, always in process.” Through this painting, Bochner asks us to question the meaning of words and phrases that we find obvious rather than complacently consuming them, and also encourages us to take time to think deeply about the words he presents. His addition of the phrase in Italian along with his color choice further signifies the need to approach text with consideration, as translation is never black and white.