Dictionary of Words that are Impossible to Focus - Sculpture

The Dictionary of Words that are Impossible to Focus (Diccionario de palabras imposibles de enforcar) is a two piece sculpture featuring a dictionary of words from many languages (Japanese, English, German, Arabic etc) with translations in Spanish framed on microscope slides, and a second sculpture, a handmade microscope with a single word on a slide magnified under a lens. There are just under 100 words in the dictionary all selected for their cultural singularity, words like: Gurfa, which in Arabic means the amount of water that can be held in the hands or Komorebi, which is the Japanese word for the light that filters through the leaves of trees. These are words which can be translated at some level (and of course in their physical form can be brought into focus under a microscope) but which seem to require some extra level of cultural awareness, situation and so on to get the true significance and nuance. There is the sense that the translation leaves something about the word still blurred, obscured and ineffable. This piece is emblematic of a recurring Furst_Ori theme concerning the limits of language. The dictionary itself is handmade from steel, glass, and acrylic sheet, with removable panels held in place by magnets so that the words on the slides can be inspected and rearranged at will. Signed by Ori.