Tell Me and Silences

Álava’s projects in the form of dialogues, verbal descriptions, rumors or random encounters, explore notions of trust and intimacy, and use language as a medium to investigate the interconnections that exist between public, private, educational and interpretative aspects of art. Her work explores the capacity that certain materials have to create a maximum by reversing a minimum. “I am intrigued by how we react to the kinds of situations where we are faced with something that looks like it is about to fall. Do we just let it go and rebuild a new structure, or do we try to balance what is mostly gone?”

Alava’s interactive installation Tell Me 2004-2014, made out of thousands of handwritten pieces of paper pinned to the wall and sensitive to the slightest air current, contains thousands of fragmented conversations maintained for the last decade between Álava and the public in the privacy of NYC art museums, where Álava has worked for twelve years as a lecturer/museum educator, leading more than two thousand gallery talks, and inviting friends to think of different ways to interact inside these communal spaces. “I am an artist intrigued by the way the general public interacts and communicates inside museums. To me, museums are ideal ecosystems and stages where differences can be discussed through dialogue, making it possible to engage with the multiple thoughts that arise from these differences and increase our knowledge via interconnected fields.” (FonteraD, 2010)

Also exhibited are Álava’s drawing series Silences 2004-2014, made underground on the subway in New York with ballpoint pen during the commute between her studio and the museums, depicting dark rooms seen through half closed/open doors.