tah pah taHbe

Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
Buffalo, New York

Maria Andelman
tah pah taHbe

"A sequence of photographs brings the viewer to the empty and rusty premises of a Space Research Center. In between simulators, future tower controls, wind tunnels and hangars Hamlet's soliloquy "tah pah taHbe'" or "to be or not to be" is recited in the artificial language Klingon. Klingon was first conceived as a prop for the fictional Star Trek universe and soon developed into "the fastest growing language of the galaxy." When Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI said "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have heard him in the original Klingon" he created food for thought. Who is Shakespeare, a human or a Klingon and who is the author of the fiction surrounding the fiction? Here sci-fi mythologies acquire flesh and bone and create a tragic-comical maze where fantasy becomes more and more real, invading and ultimately taking over reality. The Klingon Khamlet was published by the Klingon Language Institute, as a result of the Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project."


[photograph from Curative Projects Web site. Caption: Maria Antelman, tah pagh taHbe, 2006.]