Translation (2009-2011) is a sculptural installation based on the symbolism of forests and pine trees. The title derives from Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Task of the Translator,” in which he describes translation as shooting arrows into the heart of a forest to find the echo of the original text. I am transposing his metaphoric image onto the relationship between representation and referent while retaining echoes of fairytales and mysticism. Wood and pine trees are construction materials and are represented in images and models. The installation involves a deferral or displacement of the original, or perhaps original copies; they are a mixture of the present fake and the absent or constructed referent, forming larger compositions from multiple, similar parts: difference in repetition, sameness in multiplicity, the forest and its copies.

Installation photos from the Koehnline Museum of Art, Des Plaines, IL, October 6–December 2, 2011.