Sea of Tears
Ruti Singer and Noa Sheizaf
Curator: Rotem Ritov
08.09.22-08.10.22
Sea of TearsThe exhibition Sea of Tears is a collaborative artistic-experiential project by artists Ruti Singer and Noa Sheizaf, akin to a stroll through an enchanted garden where time loses its foothold. Past, present and future become intertwined, turning into a simultaneous presence. Singer and Sheizaf guide visitors along a journey that passes through four installations. The sequence of installations recounts the essence of a journey through the enchanted garden and symbolizes the simultaneous presence of beauty and sadness in our momentary existence on the continuum of eternity.
The four installations – “Eternity”, “Withering”, “Forest of Tears”, “Cleansing” – are assembled through the diverse positioning of photographs, paintings and drawings intertwined with an array of organic materials. In two of the installations, an ongoing cycle of decay and renewal will take place throughout the exhibition: In the installation “The Ghost Garden”, leaves crush under the feet of the visitors, who are then invited to actively participate in the “Cleansing” exhibition space. The materials used in the installations were collected from the artists' own private gardens. In these gardens, fruit trees were planted and blossomed, children ran about, and in the evenings they served as a place for calm and deeper contemplation of nature, the horizon, the seasons of the year and the changing of times. Like the garden in Lewis Carroll's “Wonderland” books, subterranean, restless streams of thought simmer in Singer and Sheizaf's enchanted garden, until they overflow and flood.
We witness an infinite cycle of blooming and withering, budding and aridity, life and death. If Venus is the essence, then nature sustains her over and over again, without tarrying over nostalgia or longing. Just as the people of Ancient Greece, we today stand in awe of the love and beauty that inevitably elude lingering on them for long. And we remain overwhelmed by our inability to internalize that we are just a fleeting part of this beauty.
The opening of the exhibition Sea of Tears will take place as part of the Tel- Aviv Municipality's Loving Art, Creating Art events.
About the artists
Ruti Singer is a multi-disciplinary artist, a member of the Alfred Cooperative Institute for Art & Culture. She holds a BA in Film and Television (1987) and an MA in Stage Design (1994), both from Tel-Aviv University. Singer has exhibited in solo and group shows. In 2022, she was awarded a grant from the Ministry of Culture and Sport's Fund for Independent Creators, to support her participation in the BROTA artist's residency in Buenos Aires. She lives and works in Kfar Yona.
Noa Sheizaf is an artist and curator who works in the mediums of photography, video and installation. She holds a BA in Fine Art and Archeology (1995) and an MA in Maritime Archeology (2003), both from the University of Haifa. She is also a graduate of the WIZO Haifa Academy's Department of Photography (1997) and the Kibbutzim College Program for Curatorship and Visual Thinking Studies (2021). Sheizaf has exhibited in solo and group shows in Israel and Europe. In 2019, she was awarded an honorable mention in the Julia Margaret Cameron Award Photo Contest. In 2021–22, she participated in the artist's residency program "The Lab" in Tel Aviv, curated by Sharon Toval. She lives and works in the communal town of Katzir, located in Wadi Ara.
Exhibition Season: Flooded
The exhibition Sea of Tears is the fourth of the 2022-2023 exhibition season, dedicated to the theme: Flooded.
We live in an era that is flooded and flooding. The world is overflowing like a river. While we must flow with the current, we actually have trouble keeping our heads above water, especially with FOMO hovering above us. Boundaries melt in the spheres of the psychological / consciousness and the physical / corporeal / geographical. There are too many possibilities and choosing between them is confusing.
Through the exhibition series “Flooded”, Alfred Gallery strives to anchor islands in the unending flow of events, images, talks and words. Although the flooding is uncontrollable, it is not passive. It is a conflict arena, an upheaval that threatens to spill over, it is movement, struggle and conciliation. We have asked artists for proposals and ideas for exhibitions and events that flood or are flooded, and consider different aspects of this exhibition season’s title.