Brâncuși. I find his ability to turn the pedestal into an inseparable part of the piece brilliant. My totem works were inspired by him. His integration of materials and the way he positions his objects is breathtaking. That's where the feeling is. He is a true mentor to how to create a desirable object – one that you want to smell, touch, photograph, or sleep next
I aim to create a ritualistic space that encompasses a sign language built of the hybridization of the heroic and sacred, and the ridiculous and theatrical. The spectators feel the presence of a certain culture that they cannot read or comprehend. I try to create a mystical language and make it decorative as well as more valuable.
I like viewers of the works to feel an emotional spectrum that ranges between serenity and anxiety. There's always something calm and humoristic about my work, as well as a very clean aesthetic, but beneath that exists a sort of anxiety, a feeling that something wrong is taking place. I'd like the spectators to think of a new order, about what we didn’t notice, although it was there all along. I always deal with the familiar and distort it.
In my work Sunset Routine, for instance, I wanted to create a cinematic scene through a window. The work was inspired by the large windows at gyms around the city. It seems very joyful at first, but there's some distress within that happiness. The scene is suspicious – it depicts a character in a manic state that exercises nonstop – constantly smiling and running. It makes you wonder about this "happiness" – is it real? It is "unbearable happiness"?
I grew up in the world of theater, but I was always intrigued by craftwork and set building. I applied to both the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio and Bezalel, but ultimately joined Bezalel's arts department. I think the decision resulted from my desire to expand my horizons.
Over time, I realized theater is inseparable from my art and that it exists in any object I create. Objects are performative, and they don’t necessarily need to move or act to manipulate you or create some sort of "dramatic turn". When you work in an exhibition space, you can control the "scene" that the spectator ultimately views through the objects as well as lighting or sound.
Uri Zamir, 29, multidisciplinary artist. Lives and works in Tel Aviv.
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