Jennifer Abessira, When I Die I Want to Turn Into Marble,
Through to – 16th August HaTachana Compound Manshia (Neve Zedek) – Cabin 14, Tel Aviv www.artstationgallery.com
For her first solo exhibition Jennifer Abessira, who is marked as one of the most promising young artists in Israel today, presents selected works from Elastique project on which she has been working for the last three years, as well as new works.
Abessira uses the contemporary image world as a material and selects in an impulsive but simultaneously aware manner, images which she manipulates and combines with her own photos. The work created is a dialog between an historical and a contemporary image, which symbolizes a dialog between the artist and the outside world. In a request to bring back beauty into the art world, she chooses to document and present to the viewer images that by choosing them she signs her identity.
Elastique project was born from a strong urge to organize the images surrounding us, in the different medias and mostly in the internet. The images, which she collects almost obsessively, she merges with her works photos taken from her close surroundings, into a one halved work, with no hierarchy between the personal and internet space. With the revival of these images and connecting them with her current photos she creates a new language which raises questions about art, contemporary photography and its meaning.
Jennifer Abessira, We Live As We Dream, 2014
The ongoing dialog between her and the world allows her to break “the secluded artist” tradition. This reference is seen throughout the exhibition, as Abessira expresses her sense of loneliness and alienation as an artist and as an individual searching for his identity in a multi optional world. Even the exhibition name is taken from Joseph Conrad’s famous novel “heart of darkness”, which is characterized in its dark and alienated atmosphere.
Finally, Abessira creates a space of small works, where the artistic interference is even more substantial when she uses a technique of drawing, cutting and pasting over an existing image. The works constitute parts of private memories, which together help the viewer clear his way through the exhibition and find his identity.
Jennifer Abessira, Candles On Picasso, 2014
Jennifer Abessira was born in Paris 1984 and has been living in Israel since 1992. Abessira holds an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Tel Aviv University and is currently an MFA candidate at Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design. Abessira has participated in several projects including ‘One Hundred Days of Active Resistance’ by Vivienne Westwood in 2010, that same year she was listed by Dazed & confused magazine as one of the ten most promising photographers. Exhibited in selected museums, galleries and artfairs: Triennale Milan; KK outlet gallery, London; Fresh paint art fair, Tel Aviv; Bat-Yam Museum, Israel; selected galleries in Tel Aviv such as Sommer contemporary and Gordon gallery.
To learn more about Jennifer Abessira and Art Station go: HERE
