Springs

오렌 핀하시

Petach Tikva Museum

Petach-Tikva

9월 14일–2017년 12월 16일

Petach-Tikva

Oren Pinhassi, a sculptor who creates large-scale installations, engages in the demarcation of architectural objects. The exhibition route makes viewers walk about curiously, leading them back and forth, from the inside out. The sensual installation lures the viewer to wander in and around it, and to peek through it at the other, the foreigner, the stranger within us, as noted by Julia Kristeva in her book Strangers to Ourselves.

Familiar mundane objects and substances, such as towels, mirrors, deck chairs, a cactus, a sponge, and Vaseline are restricted in the space, as their installation amid crude, phallic concrete columns makes the viewer wonder where he is. Ostensibly left behind by absent people, the objects prevent one from determining their identities or from concluding who they were and what will become of them. Pinhassi subjects his materials to an alchemical process, during which soft becomes hard, liquid transforms into solid, the full turns empty, and the pleasant—unsettling. Examining them by human scale implies subordination of the architectural elements to questions of identity, both private and collective.

Pinhassi constructs a setting reminiscent of a public bath, placing the individual in a public space in a situation which is essentially private. He delves into the interrelations between the place and the objects occupying it, the human body, and elements such as soap and water, chemicals and minerals. In public baths, however, the politics of space apply not only to the individual’s relations with his body and objects, but also to his relationship with others; to the interpersonal relations in the geopolitical and geo-economic field, in the global world in which we live, interact, and operate.

Curated by Marie Shek

New York-based artist Oren Pinhassi (b. 1985, Tel Aviv, Israel; lives and works in New York, NY) creates sensuous sculptures and large-scale installations that explore the politics of architectural spaces as they relate to the human body. His anthropomorphic sculptures, often standing up to eight feet in height, examine individual vulnerability and fluidity within the built environment, probing new possibilities for coexistence. Pinhassi’s haptic and immersive spaces redefine the relationship between viewer and environment, provoking a visceral interaction with the art object that yields a heightened awareness of humankind’s place within larger socio-political ecosystems.

Pinhassi has developed a distinct visual language that combines the superfluous and ergonomic with the utopian. Mimicking familiar images—such as a palm tree, a shower, or a chaise lounge—Pinhassi’s sculptures break down binary categories between people and objects. This implied borderless polyamory carries a pattern of erotic transmutation that guides the formation of new understandings in which object, architecture, and the body flow seamlessly into one another in free association. Pinhassi is drawn to organic materials for their shape-shifting potential and works primarily with sand and plaster. Akin to the work of Arte Povera artists, this use of non-traditional materials is an integral part of Pinhassi’s practice. Part of his sculpting process consists of the repetitive layering of burlap, plaster, and sand over welded steel skeletons, revealing the touch of the artist’s hand across every piece. The results are totemic-like figures that collapse preconceived notions of private and public space and our agency within them, heralding a futuristic hybridity.

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