Since the first Nude was so popular here is the sequel!

Nude, No. 2 (My Albers) by Yael Kanarek (2010)

wood, the word “white” in silicone in nine languages: Amharic, Arabic, English, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Russian

31.5 x 31.5” / 80 x 80 cm

The universalism of Josef Albers’ “Homage to the Square” is examined in Nude, No. 2. It also identifies the body as a space of negotiation located between cultures. Melanin and speech are both physical attributes of the body. Each piece in the series is a linguistic composition loaded with social tension. The underpainting of these works is a pigmented glue that represents a tone that is different from that on the surface. Bleeding into the top layers, this root level of the picture’s composition symbolically acknowledges difference. Playing with the relationship of simultaneous perceptions, these pieces activate a dense system of human struggle that is orchestrated by language, regardless of one’s skin tone. As an Israeli-American, Kanarek’s perception of space is tempered with an awareness how arbitrary borders are. Employing modes of authorship such as storytelling and multilinguialism, Kanarek manipulates the biographical predisposition of a viewer’s associations (which are dynamic). Her work enters spaces of meaning determined by a global network and the negotiation of identity that occurs when confronted by multiple systems.

“e” in Thierry Mugler’s Sexy Robot Outfit, Vienna, by Claudia Hart (2003)

lambda print, mounted on black cyntra

30 x 48”  /  76.2 x 121.9 cm

2011 Postcard flashback! Touched: A Space of Relations #janineantoni #lygiaclark #lynnhershmanleeson #annettemessager #touch #touched #pink #sense #body #bodily

After quite a long hiatus, bitforms recommended reading list is back just in time for summer with a 15th installment! Performing the archive: The transformation of the archive in Contemporary art from repository of documents to art medium by Simone Osthoff “focuses upon current disruptions of representation produced by contemporary artists, critics and curators.” Osthoff examines various ontological changes that the archive has undergone, discussing its multiple functions (as repository, as artwork, as artistic tool). Osthoff follows the shift in the meaning of the archive, revealing that its function within art production is anything but fixed or stable:

“The hypothesis – that the archive as artwork challenges the notion of history as a discourse based primarily upon chronology and documentation – no longer presupposes a stable and retroactive archive, but often a generative one. Consequently, the historicizing process of contemporary art is frequently mise-en-abyme, within multiple recursions of fiction and non-fiction, without foundations.”

Performing the archive features the work of Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, and Vilém Flusser, among others.

So put down that guilty pleasure paperback (you can pick it up again later, don’t worry) and check out Performing the archive!

“60 medical infusion sets, water, fire, metal sheets 20 x 20 x 4 cm” (2013) by Zimoun

(Source: vimeo.com)

Love Letter, Yael Kanarek (2010)

Sensing the body as a creator and destroyer of space, Kanarek tangles her relationship with the viewer by violently cutting a love letter out of the gallery wall. Left in a state of demolition, chunks of text sit in remnants along the floor. An area of negotiation, the gallery walls are marked by the artist in a primal manipulation of territory and relationship.

Peering though the holes that are cut into the drywall, an inverse message is revealed in the light and shadow. The origins of graffiti lie in raw marking of space using the body.

Love Letter 565/35
Beloved,
I found the key to extreme beauty, but not the keyhole.
I tried in all the holes of my body, but none seemed to fit.
Yours Forever
Yours Sunset/Sunrise
Forever Yours
Yours Forever Yours

And here’s another!

Nude, No. 1 (My Albers), 2010. Yael Kanarek.

wood, the word “white” in silicone in nine languages: Amharic, Arabic, English, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Russian

31.5 x 31.5” / 80 x 80 cm

The universalism of Josef Albers’ “Homage to the Square” is examined in Nude, No. 1. It also identifies the body as a space of negotiation located between cultures. Melanin and speech are both physical attributes of the body. Each piece in the series is a linguistic composition loaded with social tension. The underpainting of these works is a pigmented glue that represents a tone that is different from that on the surface. Bleeding into the top layers, this root level of the picture’s composition symbolically acknowledges difference. Playing with the relationship of simultaneous perceptions, these pieces activate a dense system of human struggle that is orchestrated by language, regardless of one’s skin tone. As an Israeli-American, Kanarek’s perception of space is tempered with an awareness how arbitrary borders are. Employing modes of authorship such as storytelling and multilinguialism, Kanarek manipulates the biographical predisposition of a viewer’s associations (which are dynamic). Her work enters spaces of meaning determined by a global network and the negotiation of identity that occurs when confronted by multiple systems.

Hey Tumblr friends, here’s a previous work by Yael Kanarek - stop by the gallery! Her current show High Performance Gear is closing soon! www.bitforms.com

Travelog 159-78: Oldy (Traveler’s Journal) [paragraph 7]

by Yael Kanarek  (1995/2010)

The unpublished narrative, the Traveler’s Journal, forms the subconscious of Yael Kanarek’s World of Awe project and is rendered as a diary. Imaginative and capturing the spirit of an emotional landscape, this text as a whole is non-linear.

Existing as fragments, the Traveler’s Journal draws from an emotional landscape and drives the narrative of a traveler in a futuristic terrain called Sunset/Sunrise.

This excerpt of text conjures a scene.

Sneak peak of our next exhibition :) #bitforms - do you know whose work this is? (at bitforms gallery)

It’s the last two weeks of High Performance Gear. Come in and get a halo! Jennifer in #sanctifythyself by #yaelkanarek (at bitforms gallery)

Lyla #sanctifythyself #yaelkanarek #halo #bitforms

Betsy #sanctifythyself #yaelkanarek #bitforms (at bitforms gallery)

Adam #sanctifythyself #yaelkanarek #bitforms

Oran #sanctifythyself #yaelkanarek #bitforms (at bitforms gallery)

Flashback! #bitforms c. 2003 “braingirl”+”e”+”pussy weevil” #michelethursz #claudiahart #larrybercow #marinazurkow #julianbleecker (at bitforms gallery)