April 30, 2009 - June 24, 2009
Center for Contemporary Art (CCA)
Kalisher 5
Tel Aviv, Israel
Standard Deviation
Center of Contemporary Art, Kalisher 5, Tel Aviv April 30 – June 24, 2009 Curator: Maayan Shelef With: Guy Ben Ner, Aya Ben Ron, Noa Gross, Meir Tati, Tamir Lichtenberg, Uriel Miron, Oz Malul, Roy Menhahem Markovich, Roy Mordechai, Shahar Marcus, Shay-Lee Uziel, Efrat Kedem
The exhibition "Standard Deviation" is concerned with a range of multilayered perspectives on art making in the context of capitalist systems of production and consumption. To a large extent, the artists whose works are featured in this exhibition communicate a disillusioned awareness of the inevitable influence of existing mechanisms of production on the process of artistic creation. 1At the same time, these works all involve some form of deviation from accepted norms of production and consumption. This stance casts an ironic and critical gaze on the logic of capitalism, even though it also involves a certain degree of acceptance of its hegemonic power.
The works included in this exhibition frequently touch upon processes of production – both of actual objects and of ideas – which unfold within a closed circuit that cannot be ruptured. The relationship between the effort involved in production and the final result leads to a discussion of art making under capitalism, and to an ironic perception of the pursuit of perfection, functionality and efficiency. Capitalist systems, which entrap both the art world and society as a whole, are thus revealed, to a large extent, to be both unfounded and fragile. Although some of these works were created before the current economic crisis, they reflect a near-prophetic awareness of the capitalistic system's fragile existence.
The contemporary preoccupation with artistic production has become an inseparable part of the creative process. The artist has become a "laborer", intent upon the realization of his work: it begins with an idea, continues with raising funds and finding an exhibition space, and ends with the production of the work. Today's art-world dynamic requires artists to market themselves and their ideas – based, for the most part, on their ability to identify changing fashions and on their willingness to sell their works as products. These changes have led to a new emphasis on the economic value of the art work, which overshadows its intellectual or emotional importance – a reality that, in turn, has lead artists to experience an inner conflict – reflected in many of the works in this exhibition – concerning the "authenticity" of their works.
The artists in this exhibition construct their works by borrowing the aesthetic conventions of capitalist systems. At the same time, the real difficulties involved in raising funds for the production of video works is practically resolved through the use of ready-mades- whether they are objects or existing cinematic sets – an ironic, critical commentary on the close affinity between the art world and capitalism. Some of the works included in the exhibition draw a parallel between the human body and industrial machines – a relationship that also serves as an analog for creative processes. Other works reveal a preoccupation with the artistic race for success, the obsession to sell and exhibit and the fear of failure.
The materials used in these works are reflective of an impoverished, improvised and ephemeral local aesthetic. At the same time, they build on an international aesthetic based on recycling the excess materials produced by the capitalist economy. Western-style capitalism, as reflected in these works, is a system that is at once comforting and restrictive: it caters to the fantasies of marriage and family, easy economic gains, domesticity, body building, self-improvement and eternal youth – which all offer some form of illusory comfort in a chaotic, fractured world. These representations of capitalism thus serve as an illusion of a safe haven, which dulls the threat of detachment and ephemerality.
Guy Ben Ner
Stealing Beauty, 2008
Video, 17 minutes
Guy Ben Ner "squats" with his family in various spaces in Ikea branches world wide, where he stages scenes culled from an imaginary sitcom in various display areas. The subversive use of the environments that market domestic fantasies creates a tragicomic image of an uprooted family incapable of finding a real home. The use of Ikea sets enabled the artist to significantly lower production costs, both as a necessity and as an integral part of the work's conceptual framework. The appropriation of consumer aesthetics thus serves to critically examine its characteristics.
Oz Malul
Presentation, 2008
Mixed-media installation
Slide photographer: Rona Yefman
This work features a rotating weight, whose movement repeatedly brings it up against an obstacle that activates a slide projector. The changing slides feature the artist in work overalls of the kind worn by factory or garage workers, situated in the wilderness, which is in fact an urban park. The work ironically inverts the capitalist demand for perfect functioning and efficiency. In addition it addresses Western society's fear of failure by presenting an ephemeral-looking, unaesthetic machine engaged in an imperfect, all-too-human mode of action.
Uriel Miron
Liquid Asset, 2008
Recycled wood and fabric
Uriel Miron's sculpture resembles an easy chair that has taken on a life of its own, transforming itself into an architectural structure that attempts to overtake the space. In an inversion of industrial production processes, here the finished product is disassembled, and is transformed from a product into a raw material. The image of an easy chair designed for leisure and rest is constructed here out of materials that represent the world of laborious production: wood debris, door parts and doorposts.
Roy Menahem Markovich
Diamonds Forever, 2008
Video, 18 minutes
In this work, Roy Menahem Markovich creates a fictive story concerning an artist who moves from the center of Tel Aviv to a derelict studio in the south of the city. The artist's fortune turns unexpectedly when he discovers diamonds in his new studio. The film captures his obsessive search for additional diamonds, during which the studio is gradually dismantled until it is almost completely destroyed. The workers dismantling the studio function as a sort of extension of the artist; by undertaking a sculptural action without being unaware of its practical and financial goal, they undermine the difference between the roles of "artist" and "worker," and between art and reality.
Tamir Lichtenberg
The New Sculptors, 2007
Video installation
Tamir Lichtenberg's work features a series of spiritual and physical treatments undergone by the artist, which include various kinds of massages. The work humorously examines the perception of art as a tool of social healing: rather than using the artist's body to heal the world, here the artist solicits others to act on his body in order to "heal" himself. This work embodies an economic system that produces a self-sustaining "closed market": the artist reached an agreement with his therapists that in return for free treatments, he would display their business cards alongside the work.
Roy Mordechay
Gym, 2009
Watercolors and ink on paper
This installation was born following Roy Mordechay's encounter with Internet sites featuring Middle-Eastern muscle builders. The artist translates the online photographs of the body builders into a series of watercolor drawings that reveal the human vulnerability of their inflated bodies. This work reflects the urge to emulate models that are perceived as desirable in the affluent West. The dream of these Middle-Eastern body builders may serve as a metaphor for the Middle-Eastern artist's dream of attaining the elusive goal of international success.
Efrat Kedem
Variable Dimensions, 2009
Mixed-media, site-specific installation
Efrat Kedem "occupies" the museum space and transforms it into a private sphere – into a typical Tel Aviv balcony. She uses the debris of consumer culture- leftover building materials and objects she finds on the streets- and recycles it to create ephemeral spaces that simulate domestic environments. The balcony in this work symbolizes a space that represents a desirable lifestyle – especially given the steep rise in apartment prices in Tel Aviv. Moreover, the balcony is a symbol of freedom, since it functions as a liminal space between interior and exterior and between the private and the public; as such it creates a sense of ambiguousness and disorientation that enables the rigid rules governing each one of these spheres to be overlooked.
Meir Tati
Five-Edition Performance, 2009
Inkjet print on paper
Meir Tati presents a sale contract for a performance that may be purchased for the sum of $5000. The buyer may define the time and location of the performance, and specify the inclusion of up to three particular materials and five actions. This work ironically critiques the commercial art world and related collecting practices, and raises the following question: Who, in fact, determines the nature of an artistic act? Does the artist maintain any artistic freedom or power within this system? Will the artist be able to successfully "play the system" and effortlessly sell his ingenious idea, or is he enslaving himself in a truly dangerous manner?
Shay-Lee Uziel
Planters, 2002
Video, 15 minutes
In this work Shay-Lee Uziel caries a monologue, complaining about being rejected by the committee that reviews the works of artisans for the arts & crafts fair on Nahalat Binyamin Street. This video is at once touchingly honest and amusingly ironic: on the one hand, it parodies the figure of a local artist bitterly complaining about his lack of success; at the same time, it contains a penetrating analysis of the power relations between tastemakers in the art world and in society at large. The humoristic, seemingly light-hearted text reveals the painful conflicts experienced by contemporary artists: the desire to pursue an individualist form of art making versus a world characterized by reproductive mechanisms and a lack of creativity; and the pride involved in being "underground" versus the deep desire to be loved and accepted.
Aya Ben Ron
12 Autarchic Cases, 2009
Print on paper
Aya Ben Ron's works feature babies floating in space, connected to medical equipment as a kind of autarchic farm that supplies its own nourishment. The saccharine image of a fetus floating in the womb acquires a disturbing resonance due to the presence of apparatuses used to sustain life in coma patients. These works reflect the beginning and end of the life cycle – birth and the postponement of death: two events that represent the fantasies and anxieties that motivate human beings and shape powerful economic systems