The gallery is pleased to announce Nine Broken Letters. This is Elena del Rivero’s first one-person exhibition with the gallery. Elena del Rivero’s installations are rooted in estrangement and recollection, with paper, pearls, thread, and sound serving as primary materials for such activities as sewing, drawing, reading, and talking.
The exhibition consists of works on paper and a sound installation. Elena del Rivero wrote these nine letters in broken English during nine consecutive sleepless nights while she was displaced from her studio home at Ground Zero after the attack on 9/11.
The Letters were hand-calligraphed in light gray on 60 x 40 inches watermarked abaca paper produced by Dieu Donne Papermill for the project. The font Aksidens Grotesk used in capital letters makes the reading more difficult and at times confusing. Concurrently, the letters are read out loud by the artist and translated simultaneously into Spanish. English and Spanish are blended into a monotonous dialogue. The artist was coached by the performance artist Shelly Hirst.
Nine Broken Letters is a statement about language and the impossibility of communication. The work takes place in a space of nonexistence, a delirium of memories, sound and words. The sheets of paper on the wall become ghost-like drawings, they are like foot prints echoing confessional literature. Nine Broken Letters bear no relation to real situations or persons. They strictly belong to the realm of fantasy and dreams.
Elena del Rivero was born in Valencia, Spain. She has been living in New York since 1991. Exhibitions of the past three years include: Museo Nacional Centro Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid; The Drawing Center, New York; Art in General, New York. Her work is included in the collection of Yale University Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the Fogg Art Museum, the Museo Nacional Centro Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Judith Rothschild Foundation, La Caixa Foundation.