Dana Yoeli

Leviathan

Kav 16 - Community Gallery for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

March - April 2011 

Leviathan, a site specific sculptural installation stands in the center of Dana Yoeli's new solo show. The installation features two deeply different sculptural languages and the relationship between them: monumental sculpture on one hand and realistic miniature sculpture of decorative objects on the other. 

Leviathan an installation based on a two-side system, the front of which is a massive, concrete, rocky relief with a formalistic aesthetic characteristic of memorial sites as well as architectural – decorative elements identified with kibbutz architecture of dinning rooms and assembly halls. The front is anchored to a substantial wall that divides the gallery into two spaces. Positioned behind the concrete relief, the stark white wall functions as the demarcation line in which an arrangement of pedestals on top of which miniature porcelain-like sculptures in differing stages of finish are placed.

The miniatures are in keeping with the heritage of traditional European porcelain craftsmanship. They present /feature a rich repertoire of nature’s devastation, wild beasts and dismembered bodies. It is a collection of horrifying tales of cruelty in which man is confronted and defeated by nature’s untamed power.

 On the formalistic level, the installation embodies the tension between monumental sculpture which refers to the collective memory, ideology and solidarity that are imprinted on the viewer but which, in fact are a “cover story” for the local historical narrative and foreign sculptural language of decadent and enigmatic decorative objects, filled with lust and passion. The subject of the local aesthetic of the material arises: the austere roughness and coarseness of the exposed concrete typical of local 1960’s pragmatic Israeli architecture represents the cold and reserved side of the piece. When contrasted with the rich, overflowing sensuality of the porcelain figurines, the confrontation invokes sensory vertigo.

The installation engages the resonant space between violence and beauty; the space in which fetishism and libido are expressed through systems of polarity. The refined technique and the aesthetic nature of the miniatures disrupt moral judgment and facilitate the presentation of these obscene and grotesque scenes. Exotic motifs such as peacocks, elephant tusks, and African figures call up a yearning for unattainable beauty and sharpen the gap between that beauty and horror. It is a voyeuristic peek across the forbidden boundaries of fantasy and the unconscious.

 Leviathan leads the viewer through a sculptural system comprised of two contradictory languages while both grapple with the same extremes: death, bereavement and commemoration. The two sides of the installation create divergent viewing experiences. When confronting the monumental concrete wall the viewer finds themselves in a public, collective, rational space, whereas the condensed colorful and decorative nature of the .miniatures, leads the viewer into an intimate space that is emotionally charged.

 Curator: Sally Haftel Naveh