NMA Publications

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Depth of Translation is the story of the making and meaning of Raft , a large-scale modular installation first exhibited in 1995. Exquisitely designed by Harry Williamson, the book reproduces rare manuscript material, a unique suite of photographs as well as new concrete text settings and full colour reproductions of scroll designs by Ruark Lewis.

In a brilliant and poetic exploration of the nature of translation, the authors `lean one toward the other' on their parallel journeys across a Central Australian terrain sung by the transforming power of Kantjia, the ancestral Arrernte rain-man. Following the flow of of Arrernte translations, first into German by the Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow, and later into English, by his son, TGH (Ted) Strehlow, poet and linguist, Carter and Lewis reflect upon the profits and losses involved in such cross-cultural exchanges. The book is a revelation of the flow of inspiration through translation into fresh images.

The gallery installation Raft was first exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1995, and is now circulating in Europe. A modular work of 396 beams inscribed with 24,696 characters in 6 languages, it was conceived as a metaphor for the politics and poetics of cultural and personal exchange under colonial states. "Instead of abyssal shipwreck, we want to encourage a different conception of arrival and circulation."

(See also the preface by Philip Jones and book review by Ian Maxwell.)

220 x 145mm 148pages with 18 colour and b/w images and 10 facsimile illustrations. First Published in 2000 by NMA Publications Melbourne.

ISBN 0 9577549 0 6 : $44.00 + $6.00 post   Ordering information