Lost In Translation

Narrator: In Lost in Translation, Packer takes up the question of how much information a viewer needs to make sense of a painting.

Jordan Casteel: The beginnings of the finger endings intertwining, just the beginnings, give us enough information to understand that they are hands and they’re intertwined. Whose hands they are isn’t exactly clear.

Narrator: Jordan Casteel.

Jordan Casteel: It’s the enmeshment that we can get lost in translation. I think the title very much speaks to what this painting is. That sometimes we try to translate. We try to tell our story. We try to explain to the best of our capacities and people still can not grasp the truth of what we are trying to tell. And the truth for this painting might not be for us to fully see.

I mean, I have no idea what exactly is going on, but that's exactly why I love it because I know that wherever it is, these people feel safety. They feel connected, potentially feel loss or love. The yellow tones don’t allow an exact feeling to present itself to me in an explicit way. What it feels like to me is warmth.