BETWEEN HEAVEN & EARTH
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Artists Borough - "Hamivshala" Gallery, Tivon, Israel.
Curator: Ilan Beck. April - May 2019.
Ilan Beck – Curator, Extract from Gallery Page.
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"Yonat Chameides created an installation dealing with transitional states between life and death, youth and old age, spiritual and material, States which are associated with uncertainty, disassociation and loss of control. If the heavens were given to the gods and earth to man, then the space between the two reflects this fickle duality.
The use of symbols such as kites and boats, which are linking devices between these worlds in different cultures, and the manipulations of these symbols, which are supposedly “made of concrete” (even though the pieces are very light in weight) relate to this duality.
In this installation, Yonat Chameides uses the simile of the kite. The string ties it to the earth while the wind keeps it in the heaven, however instead of the lightness one would expect, Chameides’ kites seem like concrete, heavily crashing downwards. As is the use of the “concrete made” boats which are frozen in place atop a grid on the ground. The grid, which is man’s attempt to create order from chaos and a sense of control of the universe. These boats will not guide us to our destination in the next world as they are required to do in many cultures. On the opposite side, Chameides places a group of hollow and empty god like figures, as an expression of the human desire to reach the heavens, the realm of the gods. These futile attempts that will never work on one side and the empty gods that don’t fulfill their roles on the other.
The idea of uncertain existence and lack of control in our lives is also evident in the wall piece, which resembles the game “snakes and ladders” which originated in ancient India. Only here, Chameides replaces the snakes and ladders with kites. Supposedly, this is a simple child’s game – a game of pure luck determined by the roll of a dice. However, it conceals within it a deeper notion from the Hindi teachings. The game represents the unpredictable tosses and turns that one is subjected to through their life’s journey. The dice can turn an almost certain victory into defeat and vice versa in a karmic balance which can turn success to a downhill slope instantly, leaving the participant hanging between heaven and earth, in the hands of fate."
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