“Collecting is a Form of Uprooting – An Encounter between Self and Object”
A catalogue essay for the exhibition Shelf Life (co-curated with Rotem Ruff), Haifa Museum of Art
February – July 2010
Catalogue (designed by Koby Barchad and Noa Shwartz): 18 artist texts, Hebrew / English, color plates as”cards-collection” in a box
“Hunting,” “therapy,” “a lust for objects,” “desire,” “falling in love,” “an uncontrollable urge,” “a disease,” “an addiction” and “an obsession” – these are some of the metaphorical definitions given to various manifestations of the urge to collect. The name of the exhibition “Shelf Life” implicitly points to the paradox underlying the phenomenon of collecting – that is, the simultaneous preservation and expiration of life. Shelf Life thus attempts to show how both Israeli and international contemporary artists relate in their works to the complexities and various aspects of collecting, while analyzing the aesthetic syntax of different kinds of collections and the psychological aspects of this phenomenon and of the artist-collector’s obsessions.
“Collecting is a Form of Uprooting – An Encounter between Self and Object”
A catalogue essay for the exhibition Shelf Life (co-curated with Rotem Ruff), Haifa Museum of Art
February – July 2010
Catalogue (designed by Koby Barchad and Noa Shwartz): 18 artist texts, Hebrew / English, color plates as”cards-collection” in a box
“Hunting,” “therapy,” “a lust for objects,” “desire,” “falling in love,” “an uncontrollable urge,” “a disease,” “an addiction” and “an obsession” – these are some of the metaphorical definitions given to various manifestations of the urge to collect. The name of the exhibition “Shelf Life” implicitly points to the paradox underlying the phenomenon of collecting – that is, the simultaneous preservation and expiration of life. Shelf Life thus attempts to show how both Israeli and international contemporary artists relate in their works to the complexities and various aspects of collecting, while analyzing the aesthetic syntax of different kinds of collections and the psychological aspects of this phenomenon and of the artist-collector’s obsessions.
Gili Avissar, Gizella, 2003-2010, installation
