Adi Oz-Ari’s Solo exhibition: Blue Moon

Solo exhibition of Adi Oz-Ari, "Blue Moon"
Hmidrasha Gallery-Hayarkon 19, Tel-Aviv. Curator: Sari Golan

How do you speak of what can not be articulated? Art enters the place where words end, yet still, I believe it is necessary to take a deep look at works of art in order to bring words precisely to the silenced place.

The “blue wall” at the entrance of Adi Oz-Ari’s exhibit visually and sensually “floods” the spectator. Like various works by the artist, this wall is an ongoing experiment that stretches the material limits and the boundaries between media.

At first glance, Adi Oz-Ari’s works appear to be abstract or conceptual. That is indeed one of their layers, but they also contain autobiographical layers. Most of the references to the body are taken from the medical and paramedical worlds. Some offer an internal view of the body, while using x-ray or angiography (blood vessel imaging), out of the desire to expose the insides or the inner pain, which can not be seen or heard. Others present an external view of the body and expose vulnerability, like scabs of pulled-out hair, scars of self-cutting, bruises and more.

Oz-Ari’s works are frequently connected with concealment and camouflage. It is a constant dialogue, fraught with tension, between the desire to expose and the desire to hide a secret. Hiding, concealing and camouflage also have an autobiographical context, since Oz-Ari is the child of holocaust survivors. The trauma seared into the body continued to be passed down through the generations through a violent parenting relationship. One erasure occurs when her in a language full of secret codes that creates a unique esthetic and high sensibility, which invites the viewer to enjoy the matter and through it to enter the secrets of her world. All the while, she is testing the limits of the different media and the very ability of art to suck in pain with its roots and thereby produce magnificent flowers.