John Henry Blatter
The Language Lab
October 18 to November 22
Opening: Friday October 17, 8pm
Artist and publisher John Henry Blatter is obsessed by language. His installation at Open Space mimics an English-as-second-language lab. Each study cubicle in his Language Lab contains a unique lesson on CD and directions on how to begin. While each language CD begins as a traditional “learn conversational X”, they slowly digress into stories of displacement, longing and assimilation. Each language tape is edited and written, based on interviews with each of the performers, who are each living in the US for the first time and are learning English as a second or even third language.
The Language Lab has been presented in conjunction with Nhan Duc Nguyen’s interactive community project Lao Oi, Lao A… (O Ancient One…) opening Friday, October 17 at 7:30pm. John Henry Blatter and performance artist Camille Turner a.k.a. Miss Canadiana will be in attendance.
John Henry Blatter is an artist, writer, founder and current Editor-in-Chief, Daily Constitutional: A Publication for the Artist’s Voice. Issue #6 of the Daily Constitutional was launched at Printed Matter NYC last month, and is available at the Resource Centre @ Open Space. John Henry Blatter’s work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions in the USA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. For more information visit: http://www.johnblatter.com