<3: Elements of Style

Husslehof presents <3: Elements of Style, a three-part exhibition by Dan Kwon, a Frankfurt-based translator. To design an exhibition according to certain principles of translation, or expanding on various definitions of translation, Dan Kwon’s work comprises a multitude of visual and material elements from everyday life, mainly byproducts of consumption, detritus, single-perspective records, &c. The phrase “Elements of Style” is taken from a prominent American English writing style guide, which many anglophone students, writers and translators alike have found useful. As an American-born Korean whose higher education consisted in both visual and liberal arts, Dan Kwon claims to lack a native tongue, that is if neither the visual nor the gestural count as one. And that if there is such a thing as “universal language” then something like “translation” might pass as one. He would cite the roles that canonical texts have played throughout history. For example, how various interpretations and translations of the Torah resulted in both the New Testament and the Koran; how the Reformation, i.e., German translation of the Latin Bible ramified and led to the founding of the United States; how the translations of Communist Manifesto, an early example of world literature, broke the globe into halves. This violent and grossly abridged version of world history Dan Kwon translates as his own: “without Protestantism or the Communist Manifesto, neither Korea as we know it nor I would have come into existence, which might have been better." The etymology of “translation” originates in Latin to mean “carry something across”. When asked what it is that he does for a living: “I hustle”. And if a follow-up is solicited: “I move things around; I think that's a way to let meaning emerge, which sometimes yields value. Not only exchange but also change creates value.” He searches for links between value and meaning, and, for a definition of meaning, would quote Claude Lévi-Strauss (1909-2009) the late French anthropologist: “What does ‘to mean’ mean? It seems to me that the only answer we can give is that ‘to mean’ means the ability of any kind of data to be translated in a different language. I do not mean a different language like French or German, but different words on a different level. After all, this translation is what a dictionary is expected to give you—the meaning of the word in different words, which on a slightly different level are isomorphic to the word or expression you are trying to understand.” * * * “36 Views from a Kitchen Window Past I” “After Wojak After Augustine” “Beneath the Beach” "Oriental Bat Thing from Denmark (what i want travel what i get suffer)" "Hello?" “H&M T-Shirt from 2008 Nanjing” “Fear of Leaving Town” “Formation" “Geldautomat” “Impression, Thunder” “Monoculture” “IMG_20190224_051849 (Noise I)” “Pin I” “Plastic Bag Collection (FW 2021)” "Internationale" "Untitled (linen) “Untitled (oily fingers)” “Untitled_(orb)” “Rug from Studio” "보보편편적적인인사사랑랑의의노노래예 (slave of universal love / song of universal love)" Exhibition opens on International Translation Day, 30th of September. On view by appointment: 01.10 - 31.10.2021