Two Homes and a Longing: Marina Ben-Zvi and Aliza Ashkenazi Hayon
“One more touch, One more … Sadness … Everything here is already familiar” – Arkadi Duchin
Omer Tiroche Gallery is proud to present, Two Homes and a Longing, a duo multi-media exhibition showcasing works by the artists Marina Ben-Zvi and Aliza Ashkenazi Hayon, curated by Orly Roman. Together they examine the concept of ‘the home’ as a physical and mental place of permanence which is connected to transitions, memories and longing. Ben-Zvi and Ashkenazi, each in their own way, seek to deconstruct the physical realms of the house in order to redefine what it means ‘to be home’.
The title of the exhibition comes from acclaimed writer, Eshkol Nevo’s non-fiction novel, Osmosis, which discusses the concept that ‘home’ and ‘longing’ are often used to define identity. In modern literature, the house represents the single permanent, fortified space, which is family-owned, often preserved from generation to generation. The word ‘longing’ in Hebrew literally simulates the similar sound of a child crying for its mother, another association of belonging and home. According to the philosopher Heidegger, modernity gives us a nostalgic and painful search for a sense of home in a world that makes it difficult to find it. ‘Home’ then, is both a place in space and in time, a geographical designation as well as the feeling of an encouraging, familiar environment.
In this exhibition, Ben-Zvi and Ashkenazi Hayon go on a personal journey, during which a home is both the starting point and the destination. Ben-Zvi builds familiar household objects from cardboard packaging boxes, subverting the original function and disrupting the relationship between object and container. Simple household objects, such as a chair or a piano, become symbols of constant instability through their new medium and their ability to be dismantled and rebuilt with ease. This in turn, dismantles and rebuilds what is supposed to be the ultimate stable and safe place – the home. Ben-Zvi changes sizes, connects joints, undermines angles, reduces and fills spaces as she sees fit. Altering objects to appear as loose and unstable hybrids, stripped of their original message and awaiting new meaning.
Ashkenazi Hayon’s work focuses on appropriation, turning abandoned household objects, as well as building debris, into works of art. In her journey through the personal history of discarded objects, the artist tells a story of falling in love with the disintegration of the material through its flaws, old age, abandonment and memories. It is through her work that old wooden shutters, oil cans, wooden suitcases and discarded drawers are able to receive new life, simultaneously providing an ecological home through their recycled transformation.
Two Homes and a Longing, emphasizes the psychical and mental attachment that is formed around objects that help define one’s own individual concept of home and how they can evoke longing, whilst at the same time reflecting on the fact that the use of alternative mediums can dislocate and redirect their function.
