Nora Turato’s work considers the volatility of language, translating information from her daily intake of articles, conversations, subtitles and advertising slogans into scripts for videos, artist books, murals, text-based installations, and spoken word performances. The work reflects the multifarious nature of its sources, playing with the semantic and visual qualities of language.

Words and phrases employed by Turato reflect the ready-made vocabulary of the Internet. Political statements merge with conversations from reality TV shows, revealing subtle overlaps between social interactions, marketing strategies, consumer behaviour and introspection. To quote the artist: ‘No matter how random, many of these interests can be catalysed into something of a more political and topical meaning that can resonate with an audience not necessarily interested in these subjects, to begin with.’

A trained graphic designer, the works combine references to the International Typographic Style, cigarette packaging design, graffiti tags and commercial advertisements, alluding to a life amongst typesetting, hyphenation, grids and Venn diagrams. In addition to the bold typography that predominates, Turato’s own handwriting often appears in sprawling script, alluding to the more private register of the artist’s notebook. The latter also refers to artist’s diaristic, daily practice of note-writing, a somewhat anachronistic ritual in an era of digital correspondence. Scaled-up and writ large on a wall or billboard poster, these hand-drawn marks also begin to resemble the gestural lines of abstract painting.

Turato will perform the latest edition of her ongoing series pool as part of the exhibition Post-capital.

This event takes place under the Covid-Check regime.