For over two decades, Amalia Pica has examined systems of communication and community building. Using seemingly simple materials and found objects, she investigates human modes of interaction, especially our desire to be understood, and its accompanying pleasures and failures. Pica often incorporates signifiers of celebration and play, using bunting, confetti, and the bright color palette of children’s games, to explore the intimacy and political potentials of joy. Referencing archaic systems of communication, like the codes of 19th century French telegraphs, and organization, such as ‘set theory’, the artist explores the potentials, and pitfalls, of transmission and connection. Born during Argentina’s “Dirty War” in which the dictatorship persecuted suspected political dissidents, Pica’s work also addresses techniques of state control and establishes an open ground for civic discourse and exchange.