Concealed Roofs, My Longing a Map
Allenby 136, Tel Aviv
Curators: Judit Anis and Dafna Satran
2024
photographer Yuval Hai
7 Polymer clay sculptures on 7 plaster and jute white spaces sculptures
Hearing Organ, 2024, polymer clay, plaster and jute, 130x48x27 cm
Aviation Organ, 2024, polymer clay, plaster and jute, 138x34x51 cm
Pit, 2024, polymer clay, plaster and jute, 81x35x49
Pupil Pair, 2024, polymer clay, plaster and jute, 85x26x16 cm
Moon Snail, 2024, polymer clay, plaster and jute, 134x34x29 cm
Shell House, 2024, polymer clay, plaster and jute, 36x31x22 cm
Eye in its Socket, 2024, polymer clay, plaster and jute, 80x66x33 cm
In the series Concealed Roofs, My Longing a Map, Tamar Lash’s sculptures reference body parts and organic shapes drawn from the world of flora and fauna – fowl, mollusks, a fruit pit, seashells, fossils, and objects seemingly in the midst of fossilization. Sculpted in polymer clay, the organisms all present a thin casing, either full or empty, and appear to hide an ancient, arcane secret. Such is the sculpture “Aviation Organ”, made of a feathery fan that simulates a black heron shielding itself with its wings. A closer look reveals that the covering of shafts and fibers, painstakingly notched by hand into the thin sheet of material, contains nothing. The bird’s body does not exist. The large waterfowl has become empty space. The flimsy, brittle shell of pinkish material can also seem like a helmet, one containing a nothingness that itself enables to wear the helmet and to shelter within it.
The principle of a covering and its relation to the space within it manifests itself differently in the sculpture “Hearing Organ”. In addition to the lumpy outer husk bearing the marks of the artist’s hands, a side hatch alludes to inner activity. The light and sound that penetrate the amorphous object seem to impregnate the hidden lair, and a look inside it reveals a protective layer akin to an eardrum. The sculpture “Shell House”, a kind of spiral that recalls an ancient fossil, round and full, also provokes thoughts of fulness and emptiness. In its visible portion, a coiled trail spins the gaze to the center of the hemisphere which is set on a small plaster stool, close to the ground.
In the set of pedestal statues she created, Lash wishes to build spaces that simulate both furniture and white roofs, relating to the objects they support and reinforcing the tension of opposites which she seeks. Between convex and concave, containing and contained, and protection and vulnerability, Lash’s work reveals a secret poetic sensitivity, with a longing for something unknown and a yearning for a secret.
Judith Anis and Dafna Satran
The Space Between Action and It's Shadow
32 m longs deep inner courtyard, Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem
2023
photographer Daniel Hanoch
Sundial video
6 Thin hand sculpted surfaces placed above Galvanized iron rib seatings. Threaded onto Galvanized iron profile, placed on Galvanized iron pipe legs
The Space Between Action and It's Shadow
Since September, through and between the months of the birds migration, I have been observing Hula Lake through cameras broadcasting live by the reserve. My interest in the place was piqued when I learned that part of the lake is a 'peat bog'. Peat soil has unique soft tissue preservation properties. The observation served me as a mechanism translating time into medium. The works in the exhibition doesn't try to capture a single moment like photography. They are an urge to sculpt time. Stolen time lost time. Sculpt til ripples take up volume in air.
I watched the way the place experiences the changes that occur to it, between flocks visits, changing with time and whether. Place with qualities of hospitality. The birds there have no shadow, on the standing water. They are guests, visiting for a fleeting moment, almost still. I examined the surface of the water, the reflection. I looked at the possibility of existing without the burden of being. On the space between action and it’s shadow.
I felt depths on the stagnant water's surface. I imagined the depths of the bog. Body preserved while moving, fixed through countless living moments. Like the loneliness of the long-distance runner, the consciousness of the work floats somewhere between the bottom and the crust of the bog. At a point between reflection and movement to a complete stop.
Observation
Hula Lake
2023
Part of a series of photographs captured throughout cameras placed in Hula Lake reserve in Israel.
Young Antiques
Wall size 116x732x16 cm, Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem
2022
photographer Anton Sverdlov
11 Hand sculpted skin like animals gently placed on concrete molds
Romantic entrance in its determination. The upper body of the visitors was added to the Line of works when moving around the long half wall. It referred to the height of the window sill. The various heights of the sculptures and the spaces between them gave a musical feel, like a line of notes.
11 thin skin sculptures. Reliefs with backs or fossils pulled from the ground, having a clear statement of back and front. Intense delicacy and density of textures in contrast to rough backs and charged empty space. The sculptures are in-between the naturalness of something found, whilst the bottom cut of the sculptures seem to declare the creation of man. Man's ambition to represent a thing.
Trace Maps
Series of drawings, carbon paper on treated cotton fabric, 88x133 cm each
2021
Carrousel
pencil and carbon paper on treated cotton fabric, 100x73 cm
2020
Markings of burnet forests, Like a map of someplace familiar. Each image in the composition stands by itself as if it's a monument or a coordinate from a treasure map. They are desert dry, warm toned and harsh. Lacking the shade that a tree should provide. Shadow is a stamp of presence, a trace. It is absent from those drawings.
Carrusel
Pencil and carbon paper on treated cotton fabric, 100x73 cm
2020
Untitled x2
carbon paper on treated cotton fabric, 50x70 cm
2020
Ark
Pencil and carbon paper on treated cotton fabric, 100x140 cm
2020
photographer Anton Sverdlov
Special thanks to Labotal
Freeze-Dry
Jerusalem
2021
Preserved plants, in freeze-drying technique embroidered on tulle and attached to polymer clay sculptures.
I experimented with variety of techniques for preserving plants until I became familiar with the lyophilization process. ‘Labotel', a company for scientific equipment, and I cooperated. Using their freeze-drying machine, designed for laboratory needs on wild plants, which were later incorporated into the sculptures.
I collected various plants including seeds, thorns, leaves and flowers from the forest behind my childhood house and right after went to ‘Labotal' to run the machine. At the end of the process I had plants drained of water, however still alive. fragile and brittle.
The sculptures maintains the logic of preservation by combining the contrasts of hatching movement and regeneration as well as stopping. Clinging to life, preservation and withering. Living matter that relies on industry.
Dew on Pine Needles
Photographs printed on slide
2020
Hybrid
grey clay, wax, family milk teeth and turquoise stones, 25x40x20 cm
2020
