From 5 to 20 September at Galerie Tokonoma in Paris, John Sanborn presents a solo exhibition of new media works which explore the potency of language. The exhibition features installation works Entre Nous (Evanescence), Terpsichore, A Pre-Existing Condition and Untranslatable as well as the NONSELF series of prints.

The works on display in Post-Cards from Post-America explore language as infrastructure and phenomenon; they look at the way language is interwoven with mythology and memory and how it links the physical, the political, the psychological and the conceptual.

Still from Entre Nous (Evanescence), four channel video installation by John Sanborn

Languages bridge the gap between what we feel and what we communicate to others; between the internal and external worlds; between the psychological and the social, between the animal and the human. Language involves the body and the conceptual, the individual and the communal. The way we use language shapes the way we are understood and the message we transmit, as well as the way we think of ourselves. Language can be used to reconcile or to divide, to create or to destroy; it can be the difference between success and failure. Languages are structures around which we empathise and build community, inspire and build power.

Still from Terpsichore, video installation by John Sanborn

Postcards from Post-America weaves together verbal and non verbal expression in a series of videos which reference collage or jigsaw. The works have a destabilising effect, switching deftly from one form of communication and the next and highlighting the links and profound differences between them. The work articulates the multitude of messages we receive and navigate daily, the noise we are surrounded by and the transient messages we are able to discern from it. The relationship between chaos and communication evoked by the works reminds us that we must navigate language in order to be understood and to progress, and also that truth is something ever-changing, something which can be redefined. 

Still from A Pre-Existing Condition

As well as Post-Cards from Post-America John Sanborn will be presenting, exhibiting and speaking at a number of events in Paris in September. On 10 September he presents a video projection at Silencio, the club in Montmartre designed by David Lynch. On 17 September he introduces his online work NONSELF at a live event at the Jeu de Paume at Place de la Concorde. On 20 September he presents video and live music from 8pm at Club Blackstar in the 11th arrondissement.

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Post-Cards from Post-America runs from 5 to 20 September 2019 at Galerie Tokonoma, 47 rue Chapon, Paris.