Candles, matches, nails: the unfamiliar keys of old typewriters

Conceptual typewriter sculptures from Glenda Leon, which replaces the keys with melted candles, matches, teeth and acrylic nails. She attaches various items to typewriters she purchases from antique dealers in Havana, Cuba.

Each item replaces rubber stamps or typewriter keys and has a different meaning, for example, her work The Insatiable Writer, which contains various assembled teeth.

“Pieces of human teeth establish an analogy between the act of speaking, chewing, consuming and writing. In the absence of something that can be swallowed, or to imagine only a clean sheet as a possible food, the letter then becomes a devourer of voids, clean sheets,” explains Leon in a statement about this installation.

A Cuban artist currently divides her free and working time between Havana and Madrid. Her work is currently included in the group show "Relationships in Electricity: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago" at the Portland Museum of Art.