Miscommunication as Metaphor for Artmaking

I'm interested in the role that understanding plays

when looking at an art object.

~ Amalia Pica

Verbal and nonverbal communication and how messages are delivered and received, particularly via an art object, are of especial interest to London-based artist Amalia Pica (b. 1978). Pica, who was born in Argentina, explores her themes through drawings and other works on paper, sculptures, photography, installations, and live performance, using photocopies, light bulbs, glasses and bottles, cardboard, and other materials that either "don't work" for their purpose or are intended to foster interactions, changes, and "conversations  [among] different pieces". In the first video below, this fascinating artist shares her interest in and ideas about what we can and cannot convey via language and how, so very often, we miscommunicate what we want to say and have others understand. 

Fifteen of Pica's important works from the last seven years were on view recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The show, Pica's first major solo museum exhibition in the United States, concluded August 11. A catalogue including essays and an interview with the artist accompanies "Amalia Pica".

In this video, Pica describes her installation about listening for Pinchuk Art Centre:



Also of Interest

Amalia Pica on FaceBook

Amalia Pica: Artist to Watch, Contemporary Art Society, London

Amalia Pica at Chisenhale Gallery on FaceBook (Chisenhale commissioned Pica to create a work for the London borough Tower Hamlets. The result was I am Tower of Hamlets, as I am in Tower of Hamlets, just like a lot of other people are (2011).)

Amalia Pica at Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

Amalia Pica at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Review, ArtForum, April 2013

Center for Curatorial Studio Studio Visit with Amalia Pica (Video)

Courtney Fiske, "Playing Telephone: An Interview with Amalia Pica", Art in America, April 12, 2013

Frieze Magazine Q&A with Amalia Pica, Issue 148, June-August 2012