Iman Raad’s large-scale mural commands the gallery space; the vibrant patchwork installation charts the migration of miniature painting across the Middle East and South Asia. As images are copied and re-copied in different locations, they are enriched by the inevitable mistranslations that occur in the chain of reproduction.

The neighbouring Ghanaian movie posters are transcultural adaptations, their surreal compositions blending influences from Hollywood dramas and Hong Kong martial arts movies with native Ghanaian and Nigerian stories. In a similar way, the tokatokoi (headdresses) from East New Britain in Papua New Guinea bring Christian motifs into local ceremonial tradition. The figure of the Virgin Mary is inscribed with Tolai cultural significance, forever changed through this reimagination.
 

For other artists, translation leaves gaps that cannot be bridged. British artist Khadija Saye drapes herself in various objects from western African nation The Gambia, her parent’s country, likening their traditions to an antique photograph, locked in the past. This distance between ourselves and others is also signalled in Mella Jaarsma’s Hi inlander 1999. Made from treated frog, fish, chicken and kangaroo hides, the artist’s ‘second skins’ encourage us to imagine how it feels to inhabit another’s body.

‘A Third Language’ was on display in QAG’s Gallery 5 (Henry and Amanda Bartlett Galleries) and Watermall from 11 February to 9 July 2023.