Taking Hall’s essay “Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse” as a point of departure, viewers will be invited to think about how meaning is constructed, how it is systematically distorted by audience reception and how it can be detached and drained of its original intent to produce specific or slanted narratives. The curatorial premise of this exhibition is grounded in the work of cultural theorist Stuart Hall (1932–2014), who devoted his life to studying the interweaving threads of culture, power, politics, and history. The Power Plant’s Winter 2015 season explores the concept of identity and cultural differences as shaped by the socio-political environment through the group exhibition The Unfinished Conversation: Encoding/Decoding curated by Gaëtane Verna and Mark Sealy, MBE.

With the artists: John Akomfrah, Sven Augustijnen, Shelagh Keeley and Zineb SediraĪrtists: Terry Adkins, John Akomfrah, Sven Augustijnen, Shelagh Keeley, Steve McQueen, Zineb Sedira The Unfinished Conversation: Encoding/Decoding

Encoding in film