BETWEEN WORDS AND ART - Group Exhibition Multidisciplinary

BETWEEN WORDS AND ART

Group Exhibition Multidisciplinary

  

The new exhibition in the Peace Gallery deals with the space between words and art and how it is expressed in various ways. Is there still respect for the word? For the flavor, the history, the color it contains?  Language, the word – do they have a place of respect in the art sphere today, or are they being erased from the discourse as room is made for the visual image? Can art deal with language without illustrating it? Without creating it as an object?

 

The participating artists examine the relationship between art and words today. Some study language as representation; others examine it as background, surface or substrate; some deal with cataloging, encryption and encoding while others stretch the boundaries of classical genres of language – such as written poetry, literature or rap as a style of musical poetry – into the gallery space.

 

Through various media, they mull the place and the essence of language, modes of communication, existence or non-existence of connections among different languages and differences in the way language is structured, as expressed in the first cave paintings and in the increasingly popular use of emojis.

 

The exhibition presents a multidisciplinary body of works from the realms of painting, photography, sculpture, video art, video performance, sound, dance, installation and performance. The relationships created among the works offer additional meanings.

 

The show opening includes performance art. Some of the performances will appear again during the period of the exhibition, and they will all come together once more during the closing event.

 

Participating artists: Avigail Arnheim, Ossi Yalon, Irit Bahalul, Elly Hollenhorst, Alexandra Zaslav, Ariella Shaposhnik, Dana Baharav, Daphna Shapira Hasson, Hadass Gertman, Isac Broza, Magdi Halaby, Mor Peled, Michal Pirani, Miray Shinan, Soha Faroja, Sohad Deeb, Sigal Nir, Said Affassi, Aysha e Arar, Anati Turk, Tsibi Geva, Rabeah Morkus, Rania Akel, Racheli Vardy-Granot, Rani Elinav, Shunit Gal.

Atar Geva and Anat Lidror

 

.......

BETWEEN WORDS AND ART: ABOUT THE WORKS

Ossi Yalon

 

Calla Lilies and Orit

 

'Calla Lilies' and 'Orit' are part of a series that has been placed in the public sphere alongside a mechanism that allows to make a wish. Written wishes from previous projects were transferred to the canvas by drawing with transparent varnish; dripping colors on the canvas through an IV revealed the letters embedded in it. The randomly painted surfaces served as a platform for new works on which various images were drawn that correspond to the wishes. This action simulates the way the artist works with the audience and the world, and perhaps allows for the creation of a frequency to fulfill the wishes.

 

Nukva – Making a Wish

 

In this work, the audience is asked to write on a piece of pottery what they need to repair in their life (a leaky faucet, a relationship, the whole world, a taillight in the car or anything else) and paste that piece of pottery on the broken jug.

 

This is one of a number of 'Wishing Well' actions that artist Ossi Yalon has been performing in the public sphere since 2002. The nature and topic of the question and the design of the container varies according to location and time. This work was influenced by the nearby ceramic workshops.

 

The topic of the broken vessels and the reparation of the world appear in the Jewish Kabbalistic (mystical) tradition.

 

Atziluth is the first of the four worlds that are spiritual, Heavenly realms in a descending chain: Atziluth (Emanation) - Beri'ah (Creation) - Yetzirah (Formation) - Assiah (Action).  The process of tikkun, the reparation of the broken vessels, shattered by an excess of light, takes place in the world of Atziluth, made up of a dozen partzufim  (Divine personae, or faces). Nukva is one of those 12 partzufim.  

According to Kabbalistic tradition, Tikkun Olam (the Reparation of the World) is meant to unite the Shekhinah (the Feminine Divine Presence) with God and bring redemption. Every human good deed carried out with good intent adds to this desired purpose.

The act of the artist and the audience also enables them to take part in this complex process.

 

Irit Bahaloul 

 

One out of Twenty

 

Reminiscing about the intangible, the missing, the emerging.

Reminiscing on the same outline, I engrave and anchor it into a word; a word that recalls an ancient memory and longs for an ancient pristine time, one that can be seen as a pre-lingual time, a time dealing with pictorial symbols. A language that we are now being reduced to with the development of modes of communication such as the language of emojis.

 

Secret Code

 

Secret code, maktoob, what does it say?

Past, present and future, three tenses on one background, connected together.

Two peoples who speak one language, so different yet so similar. 

Maybe you will connect, maybe.

I wish.

 

Alexandra Zaslav and Elly Hollenhorst

 

 “I am From the Start Outside Myself”

“I am From the Start Outside Myself” is inspired by Denise Riley’s poem, Outside from the Start, which serves as a reflection on Merleau-Ponty's The Phenomenology of Perception. This creation seeks to examine various notions of “outsider” through the lens of dance and movement. Using the body as text, and movement as language, the live performance is inherently fleeting yet the remaining structure is left unchanged. Drawing from the artists’ own experiences as non-native Israelis living in Israel, the movement examines how the vantage point of an outsider shapes ones individual voice, identity, relationships, narrative, the tangible and intangible space we inhabit, and our perceptions surrounding conflict.

 

Daphna Shapira Hasson

 

Black Bride

From the end of the 19th century through the 1930s, a network of Jewish pimps from South America solicited poor Jewish girls from Eastern Europe to prostitution around the world, falsely promising them a better life.  Slick, smartly dressed men, married the young women in "silent weddings" that were not valid and transported tens of thousands of them to brothels in Brazil, Argentina, New York and Istanbul. These girls were trapped in a sophisticated and powerful network and were condemned to a life of suffering and humiliation, with their families unaware of their condition and unable to save them. 

Trafficking in women is a phenomenon that has existed since the dawn of time and continues to exist today in the era of the Internet and globalization.

The performance-installation 'Black Bride' gives form and a name to anonymous women who were exploited and humiliated in the past, and to women who are still trapped by hardships, domination and humiliation.

In the performance, sheets of paper are torn from the paper dress worn by Shapira Hasson and become symbolic and fragile feminine figures. They are dipped in black liquid and are hanged, dripping a black fluid that paints and stains the wall and the floor.  Real and fictitious names of the injured women are written in charcoal over every hanging figure and remain a silent and "bleeding" reminder of their shared story. The contents of the performance and the writing of the names of the women are an attempt to restore the women's voices and identity, which had been trampled.

 

 

Hadass Gertman

 

Compass Reading

There are many things I do and love to do. I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a performance artist, a seamstress, a teacher ... and yet in recent years I felt that more than anything, I love to read books.

I want to make the thing I like best into a work of art. To create a moment in which I refine and isolate this action, my favorite, which gives me so many dimensions, and at the same time share it with those around me.

Reading is for me an island of quiet in time. I want to read always.

When I read I rest, I create, I think and yearn.

When I read I imagine, I fly, I run away and return.

When I read I love, I grieve, I enjoy, I roll with laughter.

It is like fine tuning the inner instrument inside me.

It is like breathing.

Magdi Halaby

 

Salman Natur, Salah Alkar, Nazih Kher

A series of three trilogies dealing with the space between painting and Arabic calligraphy, with the movement of letter, syllables, and name and their movement on the substrate. Abstract calligraphy that deviates from the accepted rules of calligraphy. Even those who understand Arabic find it illegible. The letters have undergone a process of printing as a mirror-writing, and they even deviate from the accepted rules of calligraphy: Kufic script, Roqaa script, are replaced by the artist's personal interpretation. 

The mixed technique, the layers that are formed and the dance movement create the space and tension between the "standard Arabic script" and the "personal script" understood only by Magdi Halaby.

The technique of his work combined with the predominant color palette, puts a spotlight on an inherent feature of the Arabic script: that dancing picturesqueness that creates a whirlwind and meaning in different variations of three names; all from Magdi Halaby's village of Ussefiya. Some are well-known writers and some are not, but they are all figures that Halaby sees as deserving to dedicate to them a trilogy of works.

Together they form a triple trilogy.

Mor Peled

 

Words into Flesh

'Words into Flesh' describes a black space in which two heads float in space without a body.

The floating heads are the face of the artist, who has moved the parts of the face to new locations, speaking a text that is addressing the viewer, and at the same time, tells the story of the faces themselves, which are trapped inside the black screen.

The text in question is partial quotations from various places in David Grossman's book 'Be My Knife' (Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1998), which were collected and reassembled.

Michal Pirani

 

Barcelona Plaza España, The Rain is Falling, Assisi

Three poems written while traveling in Barcelona (2008), Italy (2006), Tuscany in Italy (2010). The poems, created as part of a deep internal dialogue of the writer, represent mirrors as much as the language can be tangible; photographing sights in the eyes of the beholder and the words that replaced them.

And what is the connection between poetry and words? That is clear. But there is poetry that examines the authors, the times, the spaces and thus also itself. These are the three poems of Michal Pirani.

Miray Shinan

 

White Lie

In her performance-installation "White Lie" Miray Shinan writes cryptically on the board, in code, a directive for each one of us, the audience. Anyone who wants to understand this will be able to participate and thereby turn the installation itself into a performance. Miray together with Avigail Arnheim will appear in the show where both the board and their dresses will occupy a central part.

 

Miray is Playing

 

In an imaginary, fantastic and miniaturized world, Miray works in an interdisciplinary space, plays with herself in thinking, giving, being considerate, getting married, excited, laughing, lying and more, all while arranging the objects in perfect order in the closed locker space.

 

Soha Faroja 

 

Wedding Veil

 

In Arab society, there is still the custom that as part of the marriage agreement, the bridegroom actually pays a bride price in money, gold, or property that is recorded in the prenuptial agreement. In addition, the bride's parents donate to their daughter a sum of money that raises the bride's standing in the eyes of her husband, his parents and family, and she is measured according to that amount. The golden phrases in Arabic are taken from the agreement. In their brutal appearance on the delicate veil, they present the wedding ceremony ambivalently; On the one hand as a form of guaranteeing a life partnership, and on the other as a kind of deception aimed at turning the woman into the property of her husband. The veil itself, which covers only the bride and not the bridegroom, signifies the change that the wedding ceremony creates in the woman's life as she becomes the property of her husband.

The delicate veil provides neither warmth nor protection. Although it marks the marriage and the construction of the family nest, it serves to disguise and obscure the visibility of the difficulties along the way.

The delicate fabric of the veil makes it very difficult to bear colors, and even more difficult to carry the opaque gold color. The unreal gold weighs on the veil to the point of opacity even in the face of the woman's freedom. 

 

Sohad Deeb

 

Untitled

 

A series of pencil drawings on paper, some with red embroidery, which are between doodles and obsessive thoughts. Sohad Deeb uses words to write love stories that do not materialize, where the lovers only meet on paper. In an almost infinite repetition with expressions of passion and excitement, she discusses feminine body parts and emotions.

In her works, her name repeats itself in the two languages of the land, Arabic and Hebrew, as well as the word "virgin".

 

Untitled

 

This piece is a manipulated photograph based on the reproduction of Ingres' painting, The Bather, from 1808. 

Sohad allows herself to do as she wishes with the image of the female body. To dismantle and reassemble it, to stop its physical flow, to break its balance and the feminine integrity that the painter saw before his eyes.

Is this feminine integrity? To Sohad and to the society in which she lives, it is not certain. But it is also not certain that Sohad and the society she lives in see eye to eye.

She gives the figure a new aesthetic through a cross-sectional texture.

The inscription on her back, which is also cut and disassembled (as a result of that crisscrossing) to the point of being illegible, is spreading and taking up even more space on her body. 

It remains as a sign, marked on her back, signifier and signified. The treatment of the body seems difficult and even cruel and raises questions about the ownership of the body and the freedom to act in it.

 

Sigal Nir

 

Marilyn

 

This video art work was created and performed by Sigal Nir, filmed and edited by Yael Lev.  It deals with Marilyn Monroe, but not in the usual context.

Through the movement of the body, the crease of a shirt, a sound and a gaze that never leaves the viewer, Marilyn Monroe is exposed - not in her perfect glamor, but in hesitation, sadness, and pain that were also part of who she was.

Through its lack of literalism, the work deals with female language - Silent? Other?

Did Marilyn ever want to go out into the world as she did and thus adapt herself to its masculine demands at the time? What about all the women in the world?

 

Celluloid

 

The performance 'Celluloid' shows a woman dressed in 1940s style standing on a small log and dangling coils of film until the surface in front of her is filled with shimmering, silent black ribbons. From time to time, she descends from the log and takes different poses reminiscent of characters from different films, and then returns to stand on the log and roll out coils of film, one by one.

 

Index Cards

 

The passport-like index cards and images document meetings with my customers at my hair salon. What color did I dye their hair? How much color was required? What had to change? Add? Throw away? There are some sketches of haircuts, too.

Over time, the cards fill up with scribbles, deletions and stains, and turn into an anonymous document recording and cataloging in personal hieroglyphs that is understood only by the writer. Behind each card there is a woman and a whole inner space. What is going on inside when her eyes are closed?

Who is she?

 

Said Affassi

 

Nostalgia

 

A visual journey through the memory of the letters of the burning language, a continuous pain in the revelation of man. Simultaneous search "letter / person" after the problem of the degeneration of the intellect and the defeat of individualism within the social fabric. Nostalgia to the depths of humanity and language. To the common leading to the understanding of human humanity, that has become a mere memory. The letters of the language indicate their misuse because of the selfish, conflicted individualism, bubbling out of the wounds of mental anguish.

 

 

Aysha e Arar

 

Wahad

The rap work of Aisha e Arar (music: Karma She) examines the space between art, music, poetry, rap and protest.

Wahad 

 

One is awake and does not sleep

And one is asleep and not awake

One is yearning

And one is counting separations and agony

One is sad and depressed

And one is at home happy and exultant

 

One is yearning

And one is tormented

One is wondering where to turn

One is yellow and one is green

Oh God what do we do?

 

One is wondering what good is the separation 

And one is wondering what good is love 

One is asleep

And one is awake

Oh God what do we do?

 

Yellow skies

Green stars

Black trees

Oh God what do we do?

 

The earth is dusty

The skies are black

Oh, oh God

 

One  is absent minded

One cannot sleep

And one was deeply longing

 

God forbid, if it is the color of blood

God forbid if the green in the water fades

 

Anati Turk

 

Poetry of the Moment – Duet

 

In the performance area there is a table and two chairs.

The empty chair is an invitation:

To sit, meet, observe, sound and give birth to 'poetry of the moment- duet.'

To dare to sound the voice that wants to come out

To say the words that want to be said,

In a song of thanksgiving, prayer, amusement,

Or whatever the moment will bring

In an imaginary language, in words, in sounds or rhythms.

 

The performance 'Poetry of the Moment – Duet' enables an encounter between two; Between words, voices and living sounds that develop in the moment.  What is the nature of the meeting? What is understood and what is not? The language of voice and speech is here to face the test of communication, interaction and unity.

 

 

Isac Broza

 

Peace, Home, Newspaper Cube

 

The photographs 'Peace' and 'Home' deal with the unattainable longing for stability, quiet and serenity. The image, an ancient dovecote, is presented as an iconic house, its legs thin and floating in the air, computer-processed in contrasts of black and white and then folded manually using the technique of origami.

In the sculptures 'Newspaper Cubes', the newspapers are used as raw materials. The piece empties the newspaper of its media role, expressing criticism, disappointment and disgust at the current press and its aggressiveness. 

 

Tsibi Geva

 

Biladi, Biladi

 

This is a piece from 1997 from a series of works called 'Biladi Biladi' created by Tsibi Geva in the course of a decade. 'Biladi Biladi' means "my homeland, my homeland" in Arabic. It is a poem written by Mohamed Younis al-Qady and composed by Sayed Darwish, officially adopted as the national anthem of Egypt in 1979.

Tsibi Geva relates in his works to the socio-political reality of Israel here and now, while examining the differences and contrasts between "East" and "West" and the inter-cultural dialogue between them. He sometimes adds written words. His language is not blunt, but subtle and implied, and the messages are not direct but rather indirect and complex.

It is also possible to learn from the space created on the canvas between the word and the painterly image, the volume and the architecture, and the area that the word takes up on the canvas.

 

Rania Akel

 

The Swallows

 

"Swallow are flying in my art for many years, their shadow falls on the texture of coffee, henna and tea in wax casting; It spills on a white sheet and in the middle of my grandmother's red belt. My Swallows symbolize freedom, the ability to fly, and the ability to live near man in peace. Even more, their shadow acquires infinite freedom. As a child, I always tried to catch my own shadow, unsuccessfully, of course. It was then I realized that our shadow has more freedom than we do."

 

Racheli Vardy-Granot (author and mentor)

 

Ariella Shaposhnik, Rabeah Morkus (authors and performers)

 

Maxi Skirt in Two

Movement-Theater in dance and text, dealing with motherhood, mothers and childhood memories.

This is an encounter between two women, between movement and word, the body "tells" and the word "moves". The performers share their feelings, emotions and memories from their feminine-familial circle. The movement is in dialogue with the musical text, which tells of an eternal chain of mothers and daughters, who together "sew" memories and dreams, past and present.

Music: Mike Massy – Tannoura Maxi 

Rani Elinav

 

Activating Instructions

An installation-integrated video art work displays operating instructions. We are surround by operating instructions. How do they activate us and how do we operate the device through them? How does the written word, arrow, or markup activate our programming brain and "pattern" us to act? How does a single written word trigger thought and create manuals of activating instructions for our visual imagination?

The search here is one for activating instructions for a simpler, more interesting, more peaceful, more structured life.

 

Daphna Shapira Hasson and Shunit Gal

 

To Flesh Out

Time to delete and eat

'To Flesh Out' is the third performance in a trilogy that includes 'Fascia' (2012) and 'Bone Marrow' (2013). 

The performance trilogy deals with the relationship between body and language, forgetting and erasing, freezing and preserving. The activities of Shunit Gal and Daphna Shapira are performed as a double and parallel reality.

The body, in the Gal's work, is concretized by parts of meat, in direct relation to their names and literary texts, as Gal simultaneously sorts, packs, catalogs and preserves literature and parts of meat. 

Shapira Hasson deals with scrubbing, erasing and preserving daily texts from the press. Her activities are Sisyphean and pointless, and as such they become preservation items.

 

Fascia

 

'Fascia' is the first part of a trilogy.  A fascia is a delicate tissue that envelops every internal organ of the body and the body in its entirety in a multidimensional matrix. It connects the organs but also keeps them separate, and enables integrated body movement. It seems to be expressing the processes of pain, memory and emotion. It is not an organ that can be separated, defined or photographed.

The work 'Fascia' deals with the wrapping, exposure and investigation of a metaphorical body performed by two women in opposite situations.

For one of the performers, the whole body is a paper dress - torn, stained, written, then sewn and reconnected.

For the other, the body is the organs – thinking, tasting, observing. They are laid on the table as a still life, defined, recorded, eaten, and again wrapped.

This inner process traces the forces of nature and culture, body, language and gender.