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Lost in Translation: Duane Linklater
by Andrea L. Ferber
“salt 11: Duane Linklater”
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Duane Linklater, UMFA1977.099 (2015), inkjet print on linen, 85 x 44 inches. Courtesy the artist and
Catriona Jeffries Gallery.
the copying process physically expresses the loss of information that
occurs as American Indian objects
transform into Westernized ethno-
graphic objects. Rather than manually
reproducing the objects with skill and
precision, he uses mechanical filters
to produce copies that might be more
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Andrea L. Ferber, ‘Lost in TranslaƟon: Duane Linklater’, Art In Print, exhibiƟon review, Vol. 5, No. 4, November/December 2015
1
accurately described as translations …
The data lost in this imperfect process
echoes the names, stories, purposes,
and meanings that are erased during
an object’s cultural translation and
ethnographic transformation in a
museum.2
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Installation view: “salt 11: Duane Linklater,” Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2015. Courtesy the artist and
Catriona Jeffries Gallery.
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Andrea L. Ferber, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor
of Art History at Idaho State University.
Notes:
1. The documentary ,QXLW3LTXWLQJLW:KDW%HORQJV
WR ,QXLW (2006) by Zacharias Kunuk and Bernadette Dean addresses this subject by taking NunDYXW HOGHUV WR ÀYH 1RUWK $PHULFDQ PXVHXPV WR
discuss objects taken from their Inuit ancestors.
2. VDOW'XDQH/LQNODWHU. UMFA exhibition brochure, 2015, n.p.
3. Duane Linklater, “Tautology,” accessed 7 Sept
2015, http://www.duanelinklater.com/index.php?/
recent/tautology.
4. James N. Wood, “The Authorities of the American Art Museum,” in :KRVH0XVH"$UW0XVHXPV
and the Public Trust (Princeton University Press,
2006), 111.
Navajo, +DQRROFKDDGL&KLHI·V%ODQNHW
(late 19th century), wool, 71 x 77 inches. Judge
Willis W. Ritter Collection of Navajo Textiles,
UMFA1977.099.
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Andrea L. Ferber, ‘Lost in TranslaƟon: Duane Linklater’, Art In Print, exhibiƟon review, Vol. 5, No. 4, November/December 2015
2