Elena Alonso

Kind and Sharp

SOLO SHOW | Fabian Lang Gallery. 2024

Kind and Sharp is a strange but interesting juxtaposition. It's odd because while there's no right order for two qualitative adjectives, it feels like “kind” and “sharp” are the wrong way around. But Sharp and Kind doesn't sound the same. There's something enigmatic about Kind and Sharp. It's basically contradictory. Who or what is or can be kind and sharp at the same time? It's a character trait that could be attributed to a certain type of person. Like “hard but fair”. Nice and friendly, kind, but one doesn't let anyone beat them up, knows how to defend oneself, has a sharp tongue, sharpens one's knives, can hurt - if need be - doesn't let anyone kick them in the teeth, “you'll have to do better than that!”, and so on. 

It is no wonder that a person comes to mind with this word configuration. It is hopefully noticeable at second glance at the latest that the curved, elegant lines, precise markings and enigmatic symbols in Elena Alonso’s paper paintings come together to form a larger whole. Painted faces, wrinkles, brows, curves, nipples or other body parts begin to emerge. 

But one thing is never just one thing with Alonso. Soon one recognises the terrain as much more complex. The carefully constructed, meticulous balance and counterbalance in the composition becomes visible, gates to a coded or lost language, perhaps a lost culture, open up. One might almost think one is looking from above at a temple complex through which it is necessary to navigate. 

Another reference that should not be neglected is the Concrete. A friendly hello in the form of acknowledgement that takes a sharp turn towards something softer, less hard-edged and more sensual. As with the Concrete, Alonso's language is also based on a geometric foundation that works with building blocks. Building blocks that one thinks one knows and yet are completely unique and new. She goes further, for example, by playing with “what originates from material reality and what does not?”, “what is real and what is not?”. For example, Alonso devotes an infinite amount of time to studying surfaces. So much so that she is able to copy or forge materiality in such a condensed way that the viewer can no longer be sure whether it is a fake or an invention. A mixture of supposedly familiar symbols which at the same time have signs of futuristic robotics unfold. She consciously relies on an oriented play with symbolism, which evokes a memory or a repertoire in one and thus demands an interpretation yet to be discovered. It's as much about the past as it is about the future with Alonso. A new language is emerging. 

Can Alonso's building blocks be put together at will? An attempt to interpret her work in the spirit of the current time would be that it is a commentary on the rattling of our language and the definition of gender and on the problematic idea of one's own construction of the self. 

The title of the exhibition is also taken directly from the paintings on paper of the same name, the subject of which Alonso has been pursuing with great dedication for many years now. Calling the exhibition by this name also serves as a conclusion to this ongoing series and thus also as a new beginning. 

Die column and Eye pillows is the first group of sculptures to join the Kind and Sharp series of drawings in the exhibition. It is a first translation of softness, comfort, combined with hardness and sharp contours and edges. The series began with Alonso exploring the white spaces in her earlier drawings, which were often protected with paper stencils during the drawing process. So the exercise was to combine these opposing forms - stencil and interspace, as she says. In Small die column, Big die column and Eye pillows, the same shape is reproduced, filled in and extended to take on different corporealities. Here again, a language is created that says one thing but also another through its moldability. 

The “Die columns” seem to be robust. They are hollow on the inside and the thin metal tapers into a cutting tool. They could have served as a mould for the rigid Eye pillows. The airiness and softness of a cushion that is supposed to adapt to our body is transformed into a hard and heavy volume, again with the contrast of the comfort of the matt white surface, the organically carved holes/recesses and the rigid and straight finishes. 

The Concrete cuts could also have served as a mould for the “Die columns”. The way they can be moulded and rolled up suggests that they served as a protective material or cover. They also have the character of a raw material, like a roll of paper or fabric that is still waiting to be made into a work. The materials, decorations and proportions are also reminiscent of an item of clothing, armour or a piece of furniture. Is it an object of utility or jewellery? The possibilities for construing the works and the projections they allow are almost endless - each time new silhouettes and volumes emerge, evoking new interpretations. 

But there is always a balance between the concrete and the organic, the designed and the natural. The one would be incomplete without the other. It is about finding power/strength AND beauty. The process reflects our societal one - it is contradictory, full of conflict and playful