Seven Winters
The large solo exhibition by Yehudit Sasportas at the Israel Museum was a sculptural installation. The layout of the exhibition was parabolic to a multi-channeled walk through the different lobes of the brain, a kind of glimpse at conciseness itself.
The exhibition was divided into seven main areas. Each area of the space revealed a different frequency of sculpture or drawing. In the center of the exhibition space, the film Vortex of Separation was screened on a surface 10 meters wide and 6 meters high. The film itself functioned as a mediation point between the different parts of the exhibition. Acting as an architectural extension of the space, the film allowed the viewer to move through a hole in the exhibition wall, transitioning from a physical to a metaphysical dimension.
The Magnetic Shaky Table film was screened adjacent to The Stress Room, parabolic to an underground room/elevator that emerged to the surface. The materiality of the room was composed of exposed wood and living vegetation, placed on the round table at the center. A still life of branches, twigs, and tree trunks, dried and held in place by magnets placed by the artist, created a magnetic field of organic elements that attracted and repelled simultaneously. The Stress Room reflected an open frequency of material - unprocessed and primal in its appearance - while remaining receptive to the movement and placement of objects within the space.
In another room, the film The Light Workers was screened. The film was slow-paced and functions as a black box, cast out of the realm of consciousness after an intense, incomprehensible event. Adjacent to The Light Workers room was the room of Shichecha (forgetfulness), containing 15 large, unframed drawings on paper depicting the swamp - an area in northern Germany where the artist worked in the recent years.
In the center of the exhibition space stood The Tent, accompanied by four handcrafted speakers through which the sound from the main film played. The sound of the film was composed by Gamliel Sasportas, the artist’s brother. An original drawing of the swamp, spanning an 18 by 6 meter wall, depicted the core of the heavy matter comprising the swamp as an open platform - untouched and undefined.
The exhibition offered an occupation with locked, unconscious material that had resurfaced. The materials were sometimes disconnected, floating, and unassociated. At other times, they were transformed into surfaces of reflection and resonance. Yet another part acted as a testimony of bodily actions - basic energy. The exhibition offered total expectancy, open and closed simultaneously, with the sound from the film Vortex of Separation acting as the mediator between its parts.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
