Surrender Effort – Efrat Eyal

Efrat Eyal

Curator: Rachel Menashe Dor

Opening: Thursday, 24.12.2020, 18:00-22:00

Online meeting in the gallery: Wednesday, 17.2.21, 19:30 

Gallery talk (in Hebrew) between the artist and the curator

Ecosystem: Shlomit Bauman the head curator talks to Efrat Eyal and Rachel Menashe Dor (in Hebrew)

Imbalance Hurts – Talia Tokatly talks about the exhibition (in Hebrew

Closing:  Thursday 1.4.21 at 19:00

At first, the new body of work presented by Efrat Eyal looks like flattened bodies reminiscent of animal skins, hunting and victims.  As if a clear expression of targets – hunter and skinned.  But a closer look exposes a more complex world that cannot be verbalized expressing intuitive, associative, and eclectic thinking and action, where the border between leader and led is blurred.  Efrat is interested in bringing to the forefront the process as a different means of thinking and action, equal to and legitimate when compared to the rational, mission-driven, binary (or dichotomous) approach of the West.

“In the current work process, I specifically chose to work without a defined goal. I do not have an image of the work I will make.  I work without a plan and construct and deconstruct the work several times until I am satisfied.”

The the repetitive action of joining and dismantling, cutting and flattening, sticking and tearing, can occur several times in one work. This backwards and forwards can continue as often occurs when working with clay and can include other materials as part of the investigation.   The work exhibited is a moment in the process displaying the thought process and action in the studio of Efrat.  Sometimes it is minimal with one material, like tulle which hints of femininity, stretched tight like an animal skin, expressing a male action, and sometimes it is made up of many parts and processes such as ceramic “animal skins” white and black. The principle of joining different parts is prominently evident in Efrat’s work and is the heart of the form and idea in the work as opposed to her previous works where the join was blurred and hidden.  The joins have an intrinsic beauty which may be surprising in the unpolished materiality. 

Following the actions that occurred in the process of making the works in the exhibition it is evident that some of the movements were aggressive whereas others required delicate and exact movements, creating as if symmetrical objects exposing internal organs and skeleton and combining opposite qualities. In these works, Efrat offers an approach that moves between genders as well as including intuitive material and idea sequences that join and fuse ceramic and other elements.

These are not defined and specific building blocks but structures that are in the process of becoming which echo single moments and infinite combinations of similar or different.

 

With thanks to Anat Gattenyo for the curatorial advice.