During the first COVID-19 lockdown of early 2020 Naama Lindenbaum began to explore the landscape near her Pardes Hanna home.
“A friend taught me to carve [natural] chalk [rocks] with a knife,” she told The Jerusalem Post. The result, now presented as part of the “Rest Mass” group exhibition at the Edmond de Rothschild Center in Tel Aviv, is a gentle play between the small carvings and delicate pinkish paintings that depict mythic scenes such as the Hindu god Vishnu resting on the 10-headed serpent Shesha.
“I work with the imagination and images of dreaming,” she explained, “like flashes of the mind.”
The objects might bring to the viewer’s mind fossils and the graphic works etches of dinosaur skulls, yet closer inspection reveals that Lindenbaum takes the famous idea coined by Michelangelo about the complete form of the work already presenting itself in marble (and the artist simply discovering this form) to play with it. Unlike his massive objects, hers are humble. Neatly arranged, they invite a second and third look.
“The title of the exhibition is meant to ask what this ghost situation we are now facing is,” said curator Tali Ben Nun.
The exhibition text suggests regarding the works in it as the result of regular life being shut down, then reopened under restrictions, as Israelis and other people around the world blink at the new days ahead, full of fears and concerns as the pandemic returns.
In Riot in the Gallery, Tamir Erlich draws inspiration from a same-titled work by futuristic painter Umberto Boccioni to depict a violent scene taking place in what is meant to be a cultural (safe) space. The work is a large construction made up by a composition of clay pieces mounted on a large wooden frame held in place by sand-filled cushions.
The larger-than-life relief depicts two male figures about to slay one another. The tiles depicted in the artwork are visually the same as those at the Edmond de Rothschild Center space. The young thugs are dressed like the people who pass by daily on Rothschild Boulevard.
“You cannot see it, but one of them is wearing Vans shoes,” Erlich told the Post. The brand faced allegations that hidden in its soles are Stars of David meant to supposedly enable the wearer to stomp down on Jews (the ADL concluded this is false).
“Above their heads are lines that could be rockets being fired.”
This large studio-made work began during the latest Gaza war and continued during the violent clashes in several Israeli cities between Jews and Arabs.
“I often ponder how I can make art in such a situation,” Erlich said. “Is it [making art in those conditions] even legitimate?”
What intrigues one in this work is that the various pieces are screwed on with iron nails, some are driven through the eyes of one thug or the arm of another. While the holes for these screws were pre-made at the studio, the overall impression is similar to a crucifixion. An impossible present held up in clay for the audience to consider, Ecce homo?
FOR SOUND artist Itzik Gil Avizohar, the group exhibition is a chance to explore the domestic scene and his Long-Range Acoustic Device research. LRAD is employed by the police and the military as a form of non-lethal weapons.
“The idea is to place the viewer in a virtual space and offer the experience of déjà entendu (already heard),” Avizohar told the Post. Together with Eyal Bitton, Avizohar is one half of Kashaiof, an underground electronic music duo whose 2020 album Home is available online.
A visitor who walks through a curtain to the space his work is presented in is “bombarded” with a sound ray that presents the various noises that come from being at home during lockdown. Someone plays the piano, someone is cleaning their house, someone is chatting outside on the street. The technology Avizohar uses is benign, but when one steps out of the zone, the sound landscape vanishes.
Other artists who present their works at the exhibition include Kobi Amiel, Tamara Strano, Nina Traub, and Pollyana Or.
“Rest Mass” will be presented at Edmond de Rothschild Center (104 Rothschild Blvd., Tel Aviv) until October 1. Opening hours are: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Site: www.edrcenter.com The Edmond de Rothschild Center, founded by the Rothschild Foundation, promotes and nurtures artists and designers in the first years after they complete their higher education in the arts. This is done by curating changing exhibitions, offering training programs and serving as a point of meeting and discussion to the various actors in the cultural field.
Home by Kashaiof can be heard at chondriticsound.bandcamp.com/album/home