Europe

Nora Turato

Thanks, I hate it!

2020

Thanks, I hate it!, 2020 (still)

1 OF 3

The video work Thanks, I hate it! sets one of Nora Turato’s signature scripted monologues to fast-paced typography, constructing an audio-literary work that mirrors the collective claustrophobia of the COVID-19 pandemic.The video is built around the artist’s rapid-fire, over-the-top spoken delivery. As in Turato’s work generally, a collage of language from many different sources cascades into a careening narrative. Each word of Turato’s delivery syncs with bold, sans-serif type on screen, forcing the brain to read and listen at the same time. This one-to-one translation—a kind of sardonic subtitling to Turato’s exaggerated performance of masculinity—is interrupted occasionally by full-color, flashing screens. The work’s hypnotic flow eludes singular explanation. Although it could be read as a series of non-sequiturs between apparently unconnected topics—from men’s fashion and capitalism, to virtue signalling, fake news, cancel culture, and boundaries of free speech—the work’s subtle threads and self-reflexive turns offer glimpses into the overall structure. The work ultimately creates an absurdist snapshot of contemporary life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with its ceaseless feed of voyeurism, consumption, and disjunction.

Nora Turato conducts a rigorous, experimental, and multi-format investigation into the state of communication amid an era of incessant interaction. Her work manifests in spoken word performances, books, typographic animations, spatial installations, and graphic objects. Culling language from online and offline sources—such as newspapers, blogs, social media, TV series, IRL conversations, and more—Turato constructs complex, absurdist scripts to capture the frenetic energy and accelerating pulse of consumption. She was trained originally as a graphic designer, a background that informs her structuring of language and its delivery. Turato’s process involves creating an ongoing series of artists' books that collect texts over the course of an entire year. These materials serve as the starting part for the artist’s manifold explorations. Rejecting the increasing smoothness of contemporary life, Turato’s work across media introduces bumpiness into everyday speech—generating friction to encourage closer attention.

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Nora Turato Thanks, I hate it!

Nora Turato

Thanks, I hate it!