Yet the Sea Is Not Full

Solo exhibitiony:

Yael Honig

30 November - 09 December 2023

Yet the Sea Is Not Full 

The exhibition Yet the Sea Is Not Full will reopen the 2023-2014 exhibition season, concerning the trilogy Bein Hashmashot: Between Night and Day; End – Edge – Addendum.

During this time of war, grief, and survival, exhibiting art cannot be taken for granted. It seems we are almost incapable of consuming content other than that which is broadcast on news networks. The choice to present this exhibition despite this is to choose life, reflecting part of Israel’s complex daily reality.

In the exhibition Yet the Sea Is Not Full , Yael Honig presents a video-animation work in the format of a triptych that has been brought to life. The cyclical scene with numerous participants serves as a synthesis between Israeli-Zionist representations. It is shown from a distance, from above. The work incorporates images from the Renaissance and the Middle Ages, thereby creating a surrealistic encounter between the Israeli-Zionist “Hora” dance and the Medieval “Danse Macabre”. Inspired by the Breugel painting Netherlandish Proverbs, various Hebrew proverbs appear within the space of Honig’s work: “There’s no smoke without fire”, “The baker cannot testify about their own dough” (an expression meaning that a person cannot testify to the quality of their own products or actions, because they are not objective), “And a wolf shall live with a sheep” (a biblical expression describing utopic peace). These are just a few of the proverbs integrated within the intensive, chaotic, and repetitive occurrence. The proverbs merge with the landscape, encircled by a stream that flows into a sea that never becomes full. In the absence of hierarchy and order between the numerous images and symbols, the proverbs remain empty questions, competing for the viewer’s attention. The work, originally created in 2020, now evokes a rethinking of the Israeli narrative on the cycle of life and death, its complexity and fragility, and the quest to take hold of the temporal dimension. 

About the artist

Yael Honig, born in Jerusalem (1994), lives and works in Tel Aviv. She works in painting and animation. She holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (2020) and participated in the Maya Gallery’s “Telemachus” residency program (2022). Her work Yet the Sea Is Not Full has been screened at festivals in Israel and abroad, including Animasyros, TISFF, and Animafest Zagreb.    

Bein Hashmashot: Between Night and Day;
End – Edge – Addendum.

The exhibition Yet the Sea Is Not Full will reopen the 2023-2014 exhibition season, concerning the trilogy 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.