Nora Turato: govern me harder

(Hardback)

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Description

Originally trained as a graphic designer, Nora Turato adapts text to subvert and create messages. Although many of Turato's performances and works appear to be drafted by free association, she meticulously and thoughtfully edits them to evoke a sense of alluring confusion. In three signature murals with a bespoke typeface, Turato addresses the inundation of language, typography, and graphic design in our contemporary culture, whether in the news, on social media, or in advertisements. Published on the occasion of Turato's widely popular exhibition govern me harder at 52 Walker, this publication features texts by Ebony L. Haynes and Anna Kats. Serving as an extension of the exhibition, performance scripts by the artist are also included in this publication. As described in The Brooklyn Rail, "In the slick sea of graphic smoothness and language lost from meaning, something has still been irrefutably made." About Clarion The Clarion series of illustrated publications is positioned as an extension of each exhibition at the groundbreaking gallery space 52 Walker, curated by Ebony L. Haynes. The program focuses on showcasing conceptual and research-based artists from a range of backgrounds and at various stages in their careers. The series title is derived from the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop, the oldest of its kind, at the University of California, San Diego. Octavia Butler attended this workshop in the 1970s. Butler's writing has been influential in the conceptual framework of the program and the Clarion series. With a sleek design influenced by encyclopedias, each publication features color reproductions of the works on view, alongside an introduction by Haynes, commissioned essays, artist texts, archival materials, and more.

Reviews

"govern me harder asks us about the health of our tools for making and conveying meaning, and particularly how we might salvage and restore the unique potency of words to communicate novelty rather than reproduce ever-glossier iterations of something we have seen before."-- "The Brooklyn Rail"

Author Bio

Nora Turato was born in 1991 in Zagreb, Croatia, and presently lives and works in Amsterdam. The artist received her BFA from Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, in 2013, and her MFA from Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem, the Netherlands, in 2016. Ebony L. Haynes is a writer and curator from Toronto. She is based in New York, where she is a director at David Zwirner. Haynes has previously held positions as visiting curator and critic at Yale School of Art in the Painting and Printmaking program, and director at Martos Gallery and Shoot The Lobster NY & LA. Haynes sits on the boards of Artists Space and the New Art Dealers Alliance. She also runs an online "school" that offers free professional practice classes to Black students worldwide. Anna Kats is a Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.