I found that there was something both lost and gained in the translation of the words.
- Alma Haser
Alma Haser transforms the quirkiness of the German language into sculptural images that blend humour, history and imagination.
The artist’s playful new series, showing at the Print Sales Gallery from late April, explores the quirks of German idioms, their origins and often-unexpected English translations. Born in 1989 in the Black Forest to a German father and an English mother, Alma Haser grew up bilingual, sparking a fascination with language, wordplay and the poetic absurdity of literal translations – all of which influence her work.
German sayings, when translated word for word, often take on a strange, dreamlike quality. Expressions like “We are sitting beautifully in the ink” (To be in trouble through one’s own fault) or “To have a tomcat” (to have a hangover) offer Haser a wealth of surreal imagery to explore.
A defining feature of Haser ’s practice is her ability to merge photography with sculptural techniques. Many of the works in this series take shape as three-dimensional pieces, playing with folds, layers and structures that bring language to life. Haser attributes her sensitivity to the fluidity of words, in part, to her dyslexia – an influence that fuels her inventive approach to language and image.
The manipulation of the image throughout the work, incorporated through the use of paper folding techniques, ceramic sausages and inventive collage, mirrors the evolving nature of the idioms themselves. I found that there was something both lost and gained in the translation of the words.
- Alma Haser
This project not only celebrates bilingualism but also reimagines language visually. Expanding on the literary tradition of absurdist wordplay, Haser creates a tangible world where the ordinary becomes bizarre and the absurd is presented as reality.
View more works here.
Artist bio
Alma Haser (b. 1989, Germany) combines photography with collage and origami techniques to create work that seeks to expand on traditional portraiture and reflect on the concerns of millennial and future generations. Coming from a fine art background her multidimensional pieces blur the distinctions between two and three-dimensional imagery. She employs inventive paper-folding techniques that create layers of intrigue around her subjects; the results of which are both striking and at times unsettling. Haser completed her photography degree in 2010 and was shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize in 2012. She has since won several awards including The Magenta Foundation’s Bright Spark Award in 2013.
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