The current solo exhibition by Yael Yudkovik holds hints and outlines of contexts, above and under the ground. Yudkovik’s art is mostly nourished by biographical materials, evolving through a continuing dialog with death, via the awareness of finality on the one hand, and the effort to put it off on the other, with playful tricks, ruses, and humor.

With One Leg Up in the Air
The works in the exhibition are in a state of preparation for parting, perhaps a look back on a parting, and at the same time protesting it. They seem to be whispering about the impending death of a fictitious figure, seeking to be at once above the ground and under it. “My Death Came to Me Suddenly” expresses this protest. The finality is unacceptable, and the fiction covers it up.

Has Someone Kicked in the Door to My Consciousness?
In Yael’s creative experience, every sculpture is a tomb, each object a monument, every drawing a memorial, and each text an epitaph. And yet, most of the works contain an aspect of humor and disrupted, strange, surprising connections; both poles are held in place by the same screwdriver. To her, the friction of life against death contains a measure of protest.

Autobiography as a Treated Ready-Made
Many objects embody parts of the body, primarily limbs, and physical gestures.Yudkovik says, Most of the works begin with an intuition, an incident, or a roam around the city, an incidental encounter with something – a discarded object, parts of things that had lost their use value. The discovery of an item with potential for processing is accompanied by excitement and passion. I collect these items and bring them to the studio, where they undergo investigating, handling, and joining with previously nonexistent parts, until the defining moment when an object happens. From here on, I am deeply connected to the objects, which become living and breathing entities for me. I talk to them, sing, tell them things, consult them, and ask questions.