As we have already seen, the studies undertaken by Ketty La Rocca are not limited to content – be it social, political or personal, – but take a broader look at the condition of our culture: she is interested in the instruments and structures of communication, in language and metalanguage. Through her Riduzioni the artist examines the status of images and the functions of language: “Truly, I’m not telling it, I’m just retracing it.”(7) In these polyptychs we initially see a photo reproduction of a famous work of art, followed by several sheets on which the artist recreates the shape of this image: first calligraphically, writing a nonsensical text in very fine handwriting, or the relentless “you you”, already familiar to us. On the next sheets, the calligraphically formed shapes are gradually replaced by black lines, and these, too, progressively disappear, being transformed into increasingly minimal strokes, which in the end just barely mark out the original form.

the relationship between language and technology. “I’m interested in how words can be formed by technology, and how it transforms how we speak and write and think and imagine our world in the process,” she says. “I’m also fascinated by how certain words can become codes for other things, like empty vessels or signifiers that suggest other meanings. When we use the words “internet” and “technology,” it is often simply shorthand for a discussion about the present. These words signify a kind of contemporaneity because today everything is based around technology. Sometimes I wonder if the art world’s investment in tech is a way to distract itself from the dark abstractions and inviolate injustice of the existing world order.”