Road Tripping the Body

Emi Sfard

Curator: Dr. Revital Michali

16.02.23-17.3.23

Road Tripping the Body

Emi Sfard has Lupus. This is an illness that disrupts the immune system’s proper functioning and instead of attacking external invaders, the body attacks itself. Sfard’s illness first broke out when she was in her twenties. About ten years ago, she experienced a second outbreak, which was life-threatening, and she was even hospitalized for a long period until she was out of danger. In the solo exhibition Road Tripping the Body, Sfard revisits and processes the experience of the outbreaks and hospitalization, using the tools available to her as an artist.

Unlike her previous works, in which Sfard addressed public, political topics, as well as the wrongdoings of the Zionist enterprise and the occupation, in the exhibition Road Tripping the Body Sfard turns to her own personal story, the traumatic experience that cannot be described in words. This is an experience of losing faith in the body, anxiety and fear about losing life, nothingness and departure from that which is familiar and dear.

Sfard presents a journey inside her body. This journey is comprised of memories, experiences and moments from the hospitalization period, replete with bodily procedures, some of which were invasive, and which left a deep mark on her.

Giant graphite drawings, a body sculpted from steel wire, knitted internal organs, painted velvet curtains and ink tattoos on silicon, all simultaneously imbue the gallery space with an environment of alienation and warmth, transforming it into an area which could be either internal organic space or sterile space. On one hand, the color red floods the space and envelops the organs within it. On the other hand, a shiny white bed, curtain and contrast drawings are reminiscent of a hospital room. The same is true of the roadside landscapes that run in a loop on the video screen, taking the viewer on a road trip, a journey through infinite external spaces, which through the red filter seem like a journey within the consciousness, a “trip”. 

In order to impart this multi-faceted experience to her audience, and to convey and describe the specific sensation and feeling she experienced during her hospitalization, Sfard uses a wide range of techniques: craft materials, wool, scraps of silicon sheets used to practice tattooing, steel wire, velvet, modeling paste, wood boards collected from the street and ink. 

All the works in the exhibition are characterized by a mixture of feelings of loss and disintegration versus feelings of competence and acceptance. The hospitalization story is ambivalent: while it was a meaningful experience, it was also unbearable. Sfard returns again and again, using various mediums and techniques, to the same bodily organs and fragments. For her, the body is missing while the organs – internal and external – appear independently with no body. The attempt to put the parts together into one complete body is always destined to fail. Out of the tension between striving for unity and the feeling of absence which will not let up, Sfard embarks on a journey of acceptance. The journey is a mechanism to map out the body, aiming to restore control of her own body, which will never again be as it was, yet is here and has a presence. 

About the artist and curator: 

Emi Sfard, born in 1977, lives and works in Tel Aviv. She holds a BFA in industrial design from Bezalel and an MFA in studio art from University of Haifa. Sfard started out as a figurative painter and later progressed to conceptual art, primarily new media. Sfard constructs virtual, interactive and intimate worlds influenced by the world of painting, which address political, ecological and social topics. She has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout Israel and her works are in various collections. 

Dr. Revital Michali, researcher, independent art curator, teacher and performance artist, lives and works in Tel Aviv. Michali  holds a doctorate in Visual Art from Tel Aviv University. Her writing and art focus on female identity, motherhood and her connection to the public space. Michali has curated and produced exhibitions and art events in Tel Aviv, Berlin and the United States, including solo and group exhibitions at the ID Festival and Bethanien Künstlerhaus in Berlin, Providence College Galleries in Providence and Alfred Gallery. She has also curated performance night events and festivals at the galleries Kav 16, Alfred in Tel Aviv and Circle 1 in Berlin. She has written and produced artist books and collectors’ catalogs. 

Exhibition Events:

Closing Event and Gallery Talk 

Friday, March 17, 2023 at 12:00

We will mark the exhibition closing with a gallery talk by a special panel comprised of psychoanalyst Dr. Amir Klugman,

exhibition curator Dr. Revital Michali and the artist Emi Sfard.