The Translation

The video is in three sections; in the first an old poem is read out in Turkish – it describes an event that takes place as munitions are being transported by ox cart. In the middle section the poem is translated from Turkish into English. Finally it is read out in English. As the poem moves from one language (one time, one culture) to another we see three different takes of an imported bench in a British furniture warehouse. Like the poem, the bench has shifted across time and cultures. Fabricated from an ox yoke and the wheels from an ox cart, it has become exoticised, fossilised and possibly tragic/comical. Throughout the video the sound of heavy traffic outside the warehouse establishes the presence of the (unromanticised) western equivalent of the ox cart.