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Manifesta 11, What People Do For Money: Some Joint Ventures

Grantees
Shelly Nadashi
Manifesta, Zurich, Switzerland
June 9–September 18, 2016
Exhibition Grant

For Manifesta 11, “What People Do For Money: Some Joint Ventures,” curated by Christian Jankowski, Shelly Nadashi presented a new project that began with the artist translating, supervised by a classics teacher, a poem from Ovid’s Amores. In this elaborate text, a beloved pet parrot serves as a diminutive allegorical figure for the poet himself: a petty entertainer, a producer of pleasing words for well-to-do ladies, or a grandiose narrative-maker in the service of the Augustan regime. In homage to this parrot, Nadashi’s work CHATTER BOX was an immersive installation comprised of papier-mâché birds, eggs, and a nest that provided the setting for an audio play set to automated lights. Meditating on who the parrot is in this project––the teacher, the artist, the work itself, or potentially its viewer––the work reflected upon its own conditions of consumption. Another part of Nadashi’s project, NESTING BOX, was on view at the Literargymnasium Rämibühl, presenting the original Latin poem alongside translations into German and English.

Shelly Nadashi, CHATTERBOX, 2016, installation view at Manifesta 11.

Shelly Nadashi, NESTING BOX, 2016, installation view at Manifesta 11.

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