‘Sweet Tea House’ Gallery, Globe Road, London, 2005

Ego Skin is a collection of collages created entirely from the interior linings of postal envelopes.

Ego Skin is the lack of self correspondence that makes me suffer.

“Ego Skin explores the multiplicity of the individual, the idea that we are in fact many people inside one person. This is a notion that can be extended beyond people and applied to all things, this constant transmutation of selves and nature. Elena uses envelopes as the medium via which to explore this because of their essentially utilitarian nature and how that purpose can be transformed through the artist’s hand”

 “An envelope is essentially a disposable object with no integral value (after all, what matters is what it contains). They are not provocative by any stretch of the imagination; they appear homogenous, bland, and inert in their white or manila state. Their interiors, however, reveal intrinsic personalities that are overlooked by most people. Elena manipulates the bold patterns, company logos, ink variations, anti scanning mechanisms ordinarily dismissed when we open envelopes and removes their contents, and turns the ‘invisible’ into something to be revealed, displayed and admired” writes Chioma Okereke “Artists struggle constantly with this notion of the ‘corporate’ versus the ‘creative’ self. Whilst the envelope is a symbol of the corporate system, the business world, it is also symbolic to the creative, a conduit of emotion, couriering messages of success or rejection. Elena Cecchinato uses the envelope – something essentially ‘unseen’ or rarely contemplated in everyday life, and by turning it inside out exposes its fascinating underbelly”