I Cover the Nothingness with Birds
A solo exhibition by Yael Ben Shalom
Curator: Jenny Aharon
14.11.2024 - 14.12.2024
photos: Adi Oz-Ari
I Cover the Nothingness with Birds
A solo exhibition by Yael Ben Shalom
Curator: Jenny Aharon
In her solo exhibition 'I Cover the Nothingness with Birds,' a name taken from Zelda's poem 'You Are Silent to Me,' Yael Ben Shalom presents new works. Her works invite us past the surface layers to parts of the consciousness that lie beyond language and imagery and manifest themselves as raw, paradoxical, and sometimes disturbing experiences. These works are another phase in the artist's ongoing exploration of the tension between what is visibly tangible and what is tangible but hidden from view*. The hidden layer is governed by emotional logic and characterized by a lack of knowledge – elements that cannot be represented clearly.
* The 'Real' (le réel) is a concept coined by Jacques Lacan, referring to the absence that lies beyond the symbolic plane of language. It is known and unknown at the same time and cannot be classified within familiar categories.*
The exhibition includes paintings created during the past year and offers a unique interpretation of existence in the physical and mental space in which we currently live. A recurring motif in these works is disintegration of the physical world into images that verge on abstraction. In the painting 'White Deer,' the deer is clear and focused in the center of the composition, while the two blurred human figures stand at its feet that seem trapped beneath glass. This image invites us to reflect on the individual's place in an alienated and unstable society, whose values and identity are constantly being scrutinized.
In the painting 'Devoured Landscape,' a peculiar horse appears to have 'eaten' the surrounding landscape, drawing the viewer's eye to a poetic and surreal landscape inside its belly. In the painting 'Trajectory,' a primordial stone emerges from nothingness, echoing, breathing, and irradiating the black void. The stone, covered with delicate veins and capillaries that give it a sense of life, appears to be suspended in infinite space. The same sense of suspension recurs in the painting named as the exhibition, where a figure stands on the verge of an abyss, and a flock of birds crosses the space. The juxtaposition of these opposites—the depth of the abyss and the flock of birds—disturbs the fragile comprehension of existence and place, and once more situates life on the threshold of the unknown.
Ben Shalom's technique, which combines transparent and misty layers of material on a black background, creates an atmospheric effect and an experience that stretches the boundaries between matter and spirit, enhancing the overall feeling of alienation and the search for meaning.
About the artists and curator
Yael Ben Shalom is a multidisciplinary artist who holds an M.F.A. with highest honors from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and a B.A. in Art and Education with honors from the Midrasha School of Art at Beit Berl College. She also holds a B.A. in Law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Israel and around the world, including "Falling Up" at Gallery 4 in Tel Aviv (2020) and "Arrival" at the Cliff Gallery in Netanya (2014). Her work touches on themes such as transformation and becoming, stemming from a study of the dynamics of movement and transition between different states of consciousness.
Jenny Aharon is a multi-disciplinary creator, curator, and facilitator. She graduated with from the Philosophy Department at Ben-Gurion University and is a certified as a curator by the Ministry of Culture via the Institute for Israeli Art in Tel Aviv. She studies and facilitates at the 'Zohar Hai' Beit Midrash in Jerusalem. She is the founder and curator of the 'Reshuta' Gallery at Reshut HaRabim House in Jerusalem and curates exhibitions in the Jerusalem Biennale.
Bein Hashmashot: Between Night and Day;
End – Edge – Addendum.
Today’s times are characterized by a sense of urgency which can lead to one-dimensionality, yet also invites a complex, “multi-focal” analysis. One cannot discuss the present without considering the past and building the future.
End: There is a sense that the imminent end is lingering in the air, boundaries have been crossed, the world order has been upended, and doubt has now been cast on assumptions that were once axioms. That which was once taken for granted is no longer certain. What is good and what is bad? How can one distinguish between the two? The word “end” signifies the finishing part, the point where the thing ceases to exist.
Threshold: The threshold is a gate, an opening one must pass through in the struggle to restore meaning, decorum, and standards. In order to recover, one must consent to sojourn in threshold spaces, in destruction and uncertainty. One must agree to touch upon loss, compromise, and change. One must push up against the edges and taste the ashes.
Addendum: Lingering within a sense of destruction, anxiety, and horror enables, in the end, hope to sprout. From wallowing in the depths, the cracked and broken areas, and from disease, separation, loss, and collapsed systems, a seed sprouts, breathing new life into the consciousness and the body and helping to identify the strength embodied within them.
