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Translation Art 

"Translation Art," refers to expanding the artistic message across different media, including performance to 2D or 3D works and the reverse. It has been a continuous part of Charles Steiner's artistic practice, stemming from the time he spent as a young man working with developmentally disabled children. For a ten month period between college and graduate school, Charles was employed in a Swiss Camphill/Waldorf school/ cloistered religious community for the developmentally disabled as a personal care aide to four adolescent boys (1973-74). Camphill is an international group of schools for the developmentally disabled who follow anthroposophy, the day to day life "translations" of Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925). This is the same Rudolph Steiner whose art theories were featured in the 2013 55th Venice Biennale. 

 

This period of time had great effect on Charles, his later work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was some of the first that focused on ways of making American museums accessible to disabled individuals. Rudolph Steiner's ideas of "translation" also became a major theme in his art, both consciously and unconsciously. These featured works demonstrate Charles' use of translation in his art through his career, as he uses it to explore intersections of medium, culture, and people. 

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