A few months ago Aileen posted about being a translator and seamlessly conveying artists and writers ideas across languages. I’m sitting on an airplane where the person next to me is reading a newspaper article about me in Spanish (which I can’t read) and wishing I was a translator… Last week I went to Madrid to show a piece as part of La Noches en Blanco – a city wide arts and culture festival (and/ or excuse to stay out drinking in the streets all night while maybe looking at some art here and there.) When I arrived I checked the exhibition publication which is available in Spanish, English, and French. I only speak a few words of Spanish, and do know some French, but as I read the English description of my piece I wondered where the text came from. It wasn’t wrong per sey, but just not exactly what I intended and maybe not what I would have said. But then, as I read it a few times, I realized it most likely was something I had said, translated into Spanish, then back to English. The text in question is about my video piece Wheel: Our desires, our actions, our movements are nothing more than successive loops that make up an ephemeral loop, as fleeting as our own lives. The wheel keeps on spinning but never leads anywhere. This is the topic of the four-minute sound video by the young American visual artist, Rachel Beth Egenhofer… Okay, that’s all fine, but I’m not really sure it’s about not moving forward. It is about ups and downs. It’s also a little hard that I have never shown this piece by itself, I’ve only shown it with other work which of course puts it into context with the rest of my practice. A few days later I’m contacted by a journalist from El Pais, the Spanish newspaper who wants to interview me. He had left me the wrong phone number forgetting which letters are which in English. Needless to say we did meet anyways, and he had brought a translator. So as I sit down to talk with him, the photographer is snapping close to 200 pictures of me and in the back of my mind I keep thinking of all the sound bites and scrutiny over the recent political interviews that I’d been watching on CNN International form the hotel, and while my words are being translated back and forth and I can’t help but wonder what exactly is being translated. And so the first question… you’re piece is about how the human condition is not moving forward are you a pessimist? What??? I compose my answers carefully trying not to use too many big words, simple things without cultural references that may not translate, and try my best to explain what the piece is really about and also give context to the rest of my work. The questions move on to include things like “are we all puppets because we stand in line for iPhones overnight?” and “which of the political candidates support artists best?” I can’t help but sit there and wonder if this guy has some sort of agenda or things are being mistranslated or if I’m just on the defensive as the over analization of sound bites on CNN run though my head… A few days later the story comes out. The back page, full color, article “Coffee with Rachel Beth Egenhoefer”… little did I know this was some sort of regular thing which included a side bar of where we had coffee, what I had, and how much it cost (again, translations perhaps?) From what I can tell (Google translator) the article is flattering, and/or indifferent, it’s a nice piece. But, the writer makes reference to me being reserved and carefully composing my answers. I wasn’t being reserved – I was trying to make sure he’d understand! And, he did tell me to talk slow!... ah, well anyways… it’s those translations… So here I am, on the plane on the way back home and the stewardess comes through the isle with newspapers. The woman next to me, gets one, gets to the back page, and then turns to me in very broken English and says “It’s you, you are someone famous?” And so I get to sit for the next 7 hours wondering what she read about me and if it translated the way I hoped? Here it is (in Spanish).