Guest Post: Three Chambers- the nude, the naked and the private sphere
Sheffy Bleier, Angel #1, 2009
Guest Post by Gili Karev.
Karev (born 1988) grew up in the United States and around the Asia Pacific before arriving in Tel Aviv. She studied Literature and Asian Studies at Tel Aviv University, and Classical Art at the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts in Paros, Greece. Previously an art writer for the Hong Kong based magazine Manifesto, she currently works as an independent curator and art liaison between Israel and Hong Kong.
Since the introduction of the word ‘nude’ to the English language in the 18th century, art historians have grappled to define it in comparison to its more disgruntled counterpart: naked. In his 1956 book, ‘The Nude’, Kenneth Clark defines being naked as exposed and vulnerable. Nude, on the other hand, the body is confident, balanced and educated. In short: naked is unclothed and embarrassed, nude is art.
John Berger reinterprets the distinction in ‘Ways of Seeing’, asserting that nude is naked objectified. Only when the naked body is seen as an object, as in art, it becomes nude. In Berger’s definition, the distinction is in the eyes of the spectator.
How much can art capture the difference between a naked person and a nude object? Does the environment of a spectator influence the way the unclothed body is perceived? Art has traditionally allowed for the exposure of unadorned flesh in the public sphere to be seen as beautiful and viewed unabashedly, yet in an incident at Art Basel last month, Swiss performance artist Milo Moiré was refused entrance for arriving unclothed as part of her performance piece. Can we, as spectators, only comfortably enjoy nakedness when it is framed and hanging motionless on a wall?
Hanna Sahar, Wallpaper, 2006
Three Chambers
The first in a new series of art exhibitions that take place in private homes around the city, “Three Chambers” will explore the extent at which nakedness and nudity can be captured and experienced through art. By positioning the artwork within the private sphere, a place where vulnerability and objectification are usually eradicated, the exhibition questions distinctions between nakedness, nudity, privacy, and the freedom explored within the boundaries of one’s home.
Ruba Amira Salameh, Untitled, 2013
About the Location
Rumored to have been a hotel during the era of the Ottoman Empire, Elazar Ben Azaria 13 possesses traces of the mysterious privacy of the rooms of a hotel. Unrenovated, the building lends an ethereal quality to a bygone age of Old Yafo. To enter the ‘boudoir’ one must climb three floors, and pass through three doors. The exhibition will take place in three chambers: the entrance, the living room and the bedroom.
Exhibiting artists: Uri Gershuni, Elsa Els Brosh, Hanna Sahar, Ruba Amira Salameh, Michal Cole, Sheffy Bleier, Dror Karta, Zero Cents, Dikla Yuval, Foma, Maya Becker, Michal Hermon, Dvora Morag, Gideon Smilansky and Natacha Seroussi. Music and audio by OWLFORM.
Opening: Wednesday, July 16th @ 20:00. Opening hours: Thursday 16:00 – 22:00, Friday – Tuesday 10:00am – 18:00pm
Address: Elazar Ben Azaria 13, 3rd Floor