In collaboration with Eugene Ostashevsky, I produced a visual translation of Tango with Cows, a key document of Russian Futurism, modernist typography, visual poetry, and artists' books. Printed on brightly colored pentagonal wallpaper in Moscow in 1914, the book contains visual poetry by Vasily Kamensky set in a riotous variety of typefaces. The book is particularly known for its six ‘ferro-concrete poems,’ which entirely dispense with the linear order of text and instead allow the reader to encounter the page spatially and associatively.
We translated the poetry into English, while simultaneously preserving the typography and materiality of the original. Latin typefaces have been created or found to exactly match every one of the fifty-nine Cyrillic fonts used in the book. Additionally, the wallpaper was recreated using silkscreen on custom made Japanese paper, and the book was be printed letterpress as was the original. A facsimile, commentary volume, and portfolio of large format reproductions accompanies the translation.
The project website can be found here.
This project has been generously supported by grants from the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, the College Book Art Association, the Community Arts Assistance Program of the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the Interdisciplinary Arts Department of Columbia College Chicago.
