Elizabeth Barlow-Hall

Pride and Prejudice Translated, Page One is the first page of Jane Austin’s literary classic, Pride and Prejudice, translated into codewords, which were drawn from archival sources such as the ABC Universal Electric Telegraph Codebooks from the late 1800s, and then encoded by tracing the outline of each word to form the glyph-like writing.

This is a direct progression of Elizabeth Barlow-Hall’s previous work with image and text, using this same code to imply one thing when another thing altogether is being said. However instead of seeking to test and encourage the viewers’ engagement with what they see, this piece instead explores what it means to try to engage with and understand a foreign language. Does language require the audience’s understanding of it to mean something to them? Does its indecipherable nature cause a loss of engagement? Or can something beautiful be found in the incomplete understanding of what is being read?

Nevertheless, this work does not deny the viewer an understanding of what is being written. In choosing a famous work of fiction that can easily be sourced and viewed the true meaning has not been removed, but what is offered is the universal experience of attempting to hear and read a language other than their own.

Pride and Prejudice Translated was directly influenced by the works of Renee Gladman and ideas of reading the spaces between words rather than the words themselves. It is just as much a look into how we read our own languages as it is an investigation into how we read others’.

Email: libby@barlowhall.com

Website: libbysworld.fiveotherwise.com

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