Forge by Shay Arick at Z I Z Art Space
This post was originally published on “Ten Days in Tel Aviv” and is posted here as part of the collaboration between Oh So Arty and Ten Days in Tel Aviv.
Ten Days in Tel Aviv: Website | FB Page
Post by Laura Schwartz-Waks.
Laura grew up in Paris where she graduated her MA in Modern Art History, with a focus on Israeli contemporary art.
Laura has been living in Tel Aviv since 2009 and works at the gallery Contemporary by Golconda.
Exhibition: Forge
Artist: Shay Arick
Venue: Z I Z, Shvil HaMeretz 6
Until: February 15th
Since its opening a bit less than a year ago, Z I Z Art Space has been drawing much attention. It has been recommended, and even elected 2013’s “best new gallery” by Time Out Tel Aviv, and within a few months it became the new cool kid of the Kiryat HaMelacha block.
As for me, there are two things I particularly love about Z I Z: first of all, they know how to create original, casual and laid-back events around their exhibitions. For example, for the closing of Anat Barzilay’s performance 20.5, the public was able to buy the plants that had been covering the gallery for the purpose of the exhibition, and since it was cold outside, oven baked potatoes and hot wine were served. Needless to say, my friend Inbal took home half of the exhibition while I was taking a main focus on wine (yes, I’m French). Second of all, they pay a great attention to design and details: may it be their logo, Website or the animated invitations they send, it is always beautiful. In addition, while in some galleries, the texts written about the exhibitions are often either inexistent or too long, it was a pleasure to read the two comprehensive texts by Gideon Efrat or Elad Armon written for the exhibition Forge currently on show.
Anat Barzilay’s performance 20.5
Since I am not part of the Time Out jury, Z I Z hasn’t been elected “best gallery” for their baked potatoes or GIF invitations, but for the great quality of their exhibitions. And indeed, Forge, the first solo show of the San Francisco based artist Shay Arick is a subtle concoction of humor, tragedy, and a certain sense of the absurd. Among other works, you will find in Shay Arick’s playground a video installation of a gold fish endlessly swimming in a transparent circular tube; a witty reinterpretation of a Pieta scene, where Jesus and Maria move slowly towards each other; and –I fell in love with this one- a pile of black shirts being whitened little by little by a bottle of local bleaching agent dripping above it, Israeli and pathetical sword of Damocles. The artist’s appropriation of famous art history topoi is undermined by the unexpected appearance of the depressing objects of our everyday life.
Choreographing a Goldfish, Video installation, 2013-2014
Tie Die, Installation, 2012-2014
The forge that gives its title to the exhibition plays its symbolic role: the object melts and is recreated to reach a new signification. The fire, inherent element to any forge, with its destructive and fertilizing power is yet to be found. I like to think that the melting force is here present in its purest and most unreachable aspect: the sun, which is a part of the exhibition thanks to the hole in the gallery’s wall, creating a solar eclipse into the exhibition space.
Eclipse Installation
Forge by Shay Arick – on show until February 15th, 2014
Post credits: Laura Schwartz-Waks | Ten Days in Tel Aviv