Coronavirus messaging is reimagined by artists

/  Illustrator Mikele Lindebergh’s poster in Swedish, left, and a poster submitted in Mandarin by artist Tian Na.

Australia’s multicultural communities have faced several challenges accessing the correct health advice during the coronavirus pandemic, including not being able to find information in languages other than English.

Translation errors were also uncovered in official state and federal government messaging last year, a bungle which inspired a new multilingual poster exhibition called Mistranslations, currently on display as part of Melbourne Design Week.

The project, organised by branding and design agency Re, asked artists to reimagine the government’s COVID-19 advice in a visual way and in languages other than English, with the aim of creating an engaging poster to help break down language barriers.

In total, Mistranslations comprises 18 posters spanning 14 different languages.

/  A poster in Thai which says ‘avoiding physical greeting’ by designer and illustrator Suparom Ronyut, left, and one in Cantonese which says ‘protect yourself’ by artist Jason Lui.

Copies of the posters will be sold at the exhibition and for a limited time afterwards as well, with proceeds going to Connection Art Space, a Victoria-based organisation that works with artists from migrant and asylum seeker backgrounds. 

Mistranslations is part of Melbourne Design Week, which runs until 5 April at Honey Bones Gallery in Collingwood.

/ Valentina Saldouzi’s posters in English and Assyrian.