Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola
Letters to Unknown Letters
Mixed media and sound. 2023
Here in her own words is a description of the multilayered sound installation Letters to Unknown Letters
“Using the soles of my feet to scratch and draw the forms of letters over different surfaces, I created an audio alphabet to ‘write’ with friction and record the sounds of these gestures.
I created this sound sculpture by ‘writing’ my poem Letters to Unknown Letters with my sound alphabet.
The poem is a letter to the future of language, speculating on how letters might adapt to a new reality where our contemporary understanding of (human) language no longer exists, leaving an indecipherable message scattered on the planet.
This piece also draws upon other research sources, for example, the Tibetan concept of "terma" or the encoded information written in a non-human form and buried in the ground or in a rock, secreted in a herb or a tree, hidden in the sky, in water or in dreams, and secret alphabets including especially Hildegard von Bingen’s Lingua Ignota (Unknown Language), the oldest known invented language created by a woman.
A copy of von Bingen’s Lingua Ignota is illuminated in a light box in the installation of the work, alongside ten steel stands that hold found objects.”
The poem Letters to Unkown Letters can be read here
Hinojosa Gaxiola’s book of poems The Telaraña Circuit was published by Tender Buttons Press in Spring of 2024
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