Jan. 4, 2014 - Aug. 16, 2014
Born in 1975. Lives and works in Jerusalem
to Azazel, 2013, sculpture, mixed media
to Azazel leans on the fertile tension between tenderness and power. The cardboard horse lies on the floor, helpless, degenerate, and yet beastly and menacing. We witness a scene of downfall, defeat, collapse. The horse’s body is identifiable yet distorted and defenseless. Its crisp materiality fixates its weakness, but its huge size and mobility convey power and liveliness.
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In the scriptures the scapegoat (in Hebrew, “goat for Azazel”) is an innocent person or animal laden with guilt and punished so as to atone for collective sins. It is mentioned in the context of shirking responsibility and erasing the past and its consequences by projecting them unto another. In an autobiographic reading, the artist is attempting to break out of the boundaries of his family tradition, a religious Jewish tradition which almost totally rejects plastic art. The process of creating the piece seems like a struggle, which perhaps reflects an inner struggle between values, as the artist appears to overpower the material, kneading the cardboard into a vanquished horse.
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