Shock Wave

A duo exhibition by Tamar Hurvitz Livne and Ziva Jelin

Curator: Tali Tamir

27.12.2024 - 25.1.2025

Photos for Tamar Hurvitz-Livne: Hadar Sayfan
Photos for Ziva Jelin: Gal Avidov

Tamar Hurvitz-Livne and Ziva Jelin’s duo exhibition expresses the post-traumatic conditions in which it was created: Ziva Jelin, a member of Kibbutz Be'eri, experienced the horrors of October 7th firsthand and suffered unspeakable losses in her community and close living environment. Tamar Hurvitz-Livne, a member of Kibbutz Cabri, was evacuated from her home and for the past year has moved from one temporary location to the next. Even now, after returning to Cabri, she continues coping daily with the realities of war.

The title of the exhibition – Shock Wave – is an attempt to express the unutterable: not the horrors of the event itself but the shockwaves in its wake. The exhibition that originally aimed to address Alfred Gallery’s annual theme “Bein Hashmashot: Between Night and Day; End – Edge – Addendum” now has added meaning post-October 7th. As Jelin puts it: 'I could not imagine what loss I was speaking of. What end. What threshold, and what could the addendum be’.

Ziva Jelin works with materials characteristic of her art in recent years – brown wrapping paper and plastic glue. Using these materials, she created in the gallery space, with the help of a group of friends and colleagues, a quasi-shell made of remnants and residue that mounts the wall, clinging, slides back to the floor, and penetrates nooks and crannies, like a plant or growth on the skin. Broken tree branches coated with tar are scattered on the floor, echoing the artist's still raw memory of the moment she left the shelter on the late afternoon of October 7th: the branches, torn from the trees by artillery and rocket blasts, were strewn across the grass and sidewalks, obstructing those who sought to leave their hiding places. It was black everywhere. Jelin translates the blackness of the incineration into cold, black tar, in which she dips branches embalmed in paper shells.

The artist likens the crumbling shell she created to Borges' map of the Empire, which initially covered entire provinces, but was eventually abandoned to 'the cruelty of the sun and winter,' leaving behind only ruins.

Tamar Hurvitz-Livne explores kibbutz and sports environments, juxtaposing states of health and movement with states of vulnerability and disability. As a former player and professional volleyball coach, she views the game as a choreographed performance, metaphorically addressing life and interpersonal relationships. Images of  balls recur in Horovitz-Livne's work in various forms, but they are crushed and lack elasticity and bounce. The artist creates her sports balls from the iconic checkered wool fabric of 'Kipi slippers' ('pantoflakh') – a hybrid blend of intimate home culture and the blinding lights of the sports field.

The exhibited video work portrays a volleyball player during a practice session intended to train her to absorb and fend off balls rapidly shot at her from a 'ball cannon'. The balls, which are blocked by the player's body, serve as a metaphor for the reality of life in the north of Israel. Hurvitz-Livne chooses not to speak about direct hits, but rather the impact shocks in her immediate reality. In her words: 'I feel the shock in my body – physically and mentally, blocking and absorbing the pain.'

The artists’ two installations invade each other, creating a continuum between Jelin's crumbling shell imagery and Hurvitz-Livne's sports imagery. While Jelin mourns and grieves, Horovitz-Livne tries to cope and raise her head in face of the immense shock wave; a small replica of a soccer goal offers an alternative duality of absorption and fending.

About the artists and curator
Ziva Jelin is a graduate of the Teachers Training College of Art HaMidrasha, the legendary curator of the Kibbutz Be'eri art gallery, and founder of the Arts Program at the Nofei HaBesor high school for the kibbutzim in the south. Today, she serves as Head of the Art Education Department at Kaye College and teaches at the School of Art at Sapir College. Jelin is well known for her monochrome red paintings of Be'eri landscapes, which were penetrated  by gunfire on October 7th, one of which – 'Winding Path' – was exhibited at the Israel Museum. Jelin, who holds a Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University, has held numerous exhibitions which examine the blurred boundaries between memory and oblivion of her childhood landscapes in Kibbutz Be'eri.

Tamar Hurvitz-Livne, an honors graduate of the Art Department at Oranim College, was born in Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh and has lived in Kibbutz Cabri for over twenty years. She currently serves as the curator of the Jewish-Arab cooperative gallery in Cabri. Until closure of the Open Museum in Tefen, she headed the museum's education department and was also involved in research and curation. Hurvitz-Livne is studying towards her Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University. She also works as a teacher-trainer and coaches volleyball. She works in various techniques – painting, sculpture, basket weaving, and recently also video.

Dr. Tali Tamir holds a BA in Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a MA and Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. In the past, she curated the Kibbutz Gallery for a decade and later served as the chief curator of the Nachum Gutman Museum in Tel Aviv. Tamir teaches at the Institute for Israeli Art and is active as an independent curator, lecturer, and writer. She has published numerous books and articles.

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.