The presence of absence is the motive tying Yifat Bezalel’s work to the theme of this exhibition. Composed of a sculpture, a drawing and a video projection, her installation addressed the lack inherent in the saying 'Without flour there is no Torah', the very absence filling the void space, which Rabbi Nachman considers to be the vacuum between the letters. According to Rabbi Nachman, it is precisely within this vacuous space that the real Torah is written. Bezalel’s art engages with the 'bread of secrecy': The Shechinah is revealed in chambers of a Temple that is concealed from the eye, as it leads us into the inner chambers of the heart.
Yifat Bezalel's project was part of the group show Without Flour. In the exhibition, the viewer met the unique worlds of four female artists bringing to the fore ideas from a feminine, traditional and cultural perspective. Matter (the flour), time (from biblical to modern times) and place (the Negev) are coming full circle, as the desert housing the Negev Museum of Art is where wheat was traditionally grown.
Yifat Bezalel lives and works in Tel Aviv. Yifat graduated with distinction from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. She has held solo exhibitions in Israel and Switzerland. Among her group shows was the travelling exhibition Alice in Wonderland (Tate Liverpool, MART Trento and Rovereto, Hamburg Kunsthalle, 2011-2012). Her works can be seen in private collections throughout the world as well as in the permanent collections of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
ON VIEW: 8th September - 26th December 2015
Text: Rachel Verliebter
