South likes: Ketty La Rocca at Galerie Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf

South likes: Ketty La Rocca at Galerie Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf
Eröffnung 
Galerie Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, Germany
1 May – 28 June, 2014

Text by Marina Maniadaki

Back in the 1960s Ketty La Rocca repeatedly broke down language and approached each of its pieces as a different means of communication; speech, handwriting, typography and punctuation are transformed into an original, innovative code. La Rocca’s handwritten works transform the formal values of photographs into text, bringing in mind Apollinaire’s Calligrammes. The choice of shapes that serve as a guide for the placement of words, act as traces of the artistic process. Hands  gestures portrayed in Appendice per una Supplica invite the viewer, regardless of his mother tongue, to interpret the patterns and symbols in the work with the use of his internal tools: the unique way he experiences body language. Should we consider the oversized sculptural punctuation marks and letters along with the repetitive use of the word “you” in the artist’s mystifying concrete poetry, we confront both physically and mentally, the borders set by language. La Rocca might just be asking, where do you stand when speaking, writing, gesturing? Could our impulsive craving to communicate with each other get lost in elitism and formalities? And, if language was initiated to covey our beliefs and ideas, does the formalism of typography and grammar distort its original purpose? Meanings may meticulously change through words, yet each one of them becomes timeless through La Rocca’s captivating work.

http://www.kadel-willborn.de/exhibition_portal_english.php?id=77