Laureen Andalib: The Intrinsic Code of Language

"As language is not only an all-encapsulating power, it is heavily experiential, subliminal, permeable, socio-political, and has been theoretically scrutinized throughout time as both object and energy."

The Intrinsic Code of Language, an exhibition by Laureen Andalib (B.F.A./B.S. '17), explores recreating language as a form of in-betweeness, a state that, in essence, does not exist, but can be described by experience, both personal and present. It is familiar, staining, and alludes to the primitive — yet can subliminally be translated into perversion, exploitation, haunting forms of cultural empathy, and vice versa.

In Andalib's works, language becomes a form of questioning how the schematics of language prevails, rather than exists — as it is not only notorious, but beautifully ambiguous. Whether it is in culture or ethnicity, the way it defines our histories or who we are as of this moment, Andalib's works re-question not only what it means to be a part of a "holistic hybrid identity," but also, "the consequences of re-appropriating it."

Support for this exhibition provided by the Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar Program and the Cornell Commitment/Stanford University Research Conference.