“Consider the likelihood you have the opportunity to speak on national television, but are limited to a single word. Consider further that after you say your word you must take a vow of silence…this word would be your last.

Seyed Alavi’s video installation in the Broadway Window addressed this hypothetical situation with a series of one-word responses isolated from their original contextual meanings. Words presented in this way expand their poetic emphasis and allow different interpretations and meanings to develop. Alavi’s installation sought to examine the role of the spoke work and language in everyday communication.”

-From The New Museum Annual Report, 1991-1992