ARTIST STATEMENT

My project started from the study of Dante Alighieri's Inferno from “La Divina Commedia” and Hieronymus Bosch's “The Garden of Earthly Delights” - third panel.

In both works they are describing hell from  the Catholic perspective.

Both take “inspiration” from the biblical description of the after-life for a sinner, which is  an everlasting punishment.

My belief is that both of their works reflected the cruelty and the violence they were surrounded by, as much as the everlasting punishment of the after-life according to Catholic teaching.

In my opinion western religious books, such as the Tanakh, were narrating life as it was when they were written and then were deliberately misrepresented over time as a tool to control the masses and to justify poverty and wars.

I believe we have structured our society according to the organization that religions have.

Our economic system is created to have people on the top of the pyramid, more powerful than others and financially built in a way that the rich become richer, concealing that all is made to help the wealthier classes succeed.

Personal interests are disguised with political issues, that create wars with moral concerns and patriotism.

As religions before, now it is the system that controls the masses using rage, poverty, emotions

Using  this system to kill, pay and die in the name of.. people in power look at us while we kill each other and while we are distracted,  this idiocracy still stands, making the same mistakes.

Human nature becomes more corrupted, we step on each other for recognition or wealth.

Allowing this structure, we inevitably allow unfairness inequality, we feed destructive human behaviour, by rewarding power and money over kindness, humanity and empathy.

We have constructed our own hell.

With my work I am  implying that life is not a happy chronological line  with little setbacks that help you become  a stronger and better person.

I see life as fragments dispersed in a chaotic order but all connected somehow to each other.

All lives are a long thread in what appears to be  the hell that religious texts describe: an everlasting punishment, interspersed with happy moments, in which time is the sovereign of all things and for all people the same unknown end, death.

Many inspirations led me to the final piece, starting from  Dante Alighieri and Hieronymus   Bosch, from the structure of the piece to the delicacy and honesty of Kathe Kollwitz' works. She was telling the stories of those who couldn't speak up, especially the effects of poverty, hunger and war on the working classes. So does Luo Zhongli a few decades later, in a different way artistically by tackling current issues .

Ida Applebroog's delicate and yet powerful works had a great impact on my practice and her way of curating her shows were of great inspiration for me as Tracey Emin's with her uncomplicated and honest lines.

There are also many theoretic inspirations and researches that accompanied me during this project.

In particular:

Mauro Biglino's books, an Italian author, essayist and translator who  focused on theories concerning the bible and church history.

Politics by Andrew Heywood which offers me a truly comprehensive introduction to the study of politics

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff a bold important book which identifies our new era of capitalism

The themes that I am touching on are very hard to deal with,  some examples  about the images I am referring to are about  the war in Syria, the war in Palestine, organ trafficking, animal abuse etc.

many of which are taken from the news,  images that are very difficult to forget.

It happens that after I check the news a particular article haunts me for days.

And I feel like I  need  to mark it on a sheet of paper to make sure that those feelings are not forgotten.

One of the limitations that I found at the beginning of this project was how, on top of the expression of the subjects,  to express the delicacy, strength and inherent sorrow of the themes I wanted to portray.

I found the solution to this problem in the way I use materials and media.

I use paper to reflect the fragility of the fragments, these little moments impressed in this easily breakable rough and raw surface.

I have used different media depending on the stories I want to narrate: the medium changes  to reflect  the subject I am touching on to better express the meaning of the work. This technique has become a big part of my practice.

The colours  used are a  reference  to the colours used in religious painting, colours that have been given a biblical meaning like blue which  is the third primary colour, and which spiritually signifies the Healing Power of God. In Hebrew, the word for red is Oudem which  actually means red clay. This colour is therefore the root word for mankind as stated in the Bible.

The piece started from a 2x2 meter sheet of paper where I drew the first sketch of my idea, representing life as a living hell.

While drawing the first image I felt trapped inside the edges of the paper, so I expanded using the wall around it and various separately made images which I then integrated into the piece.

During the process and as I was making many separate images, I realized that the 2m illustration was not working with the idea I had in mind, as I was trying to create an intimacy between the viewer and the work, this large piece in the center could have been a distraction from my purpose.

When I started carving out singular moments from that big figure, I realized that tearing it  apart

might be the solution.

I have spent a great amount of time figuring out how to show the work according to my idea, while connecting it to the subject matter.

The images aren't precisely cut or framed but floating moments with imprecise edges as the chaotic fragments I depicted.  

Through figurative art, I have tried to show the viewer the fragility and also the cruelty of life, the delicacy in death and the pain that can be found through colours.

The work for me is seen as one, but to highlight the nature of these fragments, singular moments

connected to each other,  the pieces are individual, yet all together they form a  whole.

The size of each moment is chosen in order for the viewer to get closer to the image, to see it properly.

This is intended to create intimacy between the viewer and the work, a connection which gives

each story the opportunity to be listened to  and watched purposefully, not just seen and heard.