We are thrilled to present new work by Liat Elbling! Liat’s new images expand upon her Interactions series, for which everyday materials (styrofoam, cardboard, paper) are painted one monochromatic color and arranged in her studio to create anonymous, architectural spaces, with seemingly no way in and no way out. “These are small models that I build as a tribute to the world around me: the city, the street, the neighborhood, the view from my house’s window–since architecture and its components, as well as the notion of ‘home,’ are central to almost all of my works and serves as my subjects of exploration,” she says.
Through extensive lighting, the spaces come into sharp contrast. The final pieces are framed using the same color as the image, creating an optical illusion that more so reads as a sculptural, three dimensional piece than a photograph. About Interactions, she states, “Through these processes, I touch on the most fundamental elements of art: perspective, light and shadow, the relationship between two-dimensional and three-dimensional, and the encounter between different materials, colors, and textures.”
Read more about the inspiration for Liat’s new images below, and see all of her work on our website here.
A Leap of Imagination and Filling the Void
“These new works are a continuation of representation of empty and alien architectural spaces and include motifs from the house where I grew up. During the last two years, after my parents died, I had to deal with empty the apartment. The void house raised questions about the concept of space, emptiness and home, and the connection between all these in my work. ‘Within,’ which looks like a marble texture, seeks to express elements from the parents’ home.”
“Since my father and grandfather owned a marble factory – most of the house contained marble and stone objects. I wanted to give this feeling of matter, through the use of other material. The architectural model was painted with special brushes and then photographed, and so I applied this to the frame and also the wall on which it hangs.”
“The pieces titled Welcome Back, draw inspiration from a photograph of the same house–the doorway on the right is the entrance to my parents’ bedroom and the left is a window that peeps into the kitchen.”
“The theme of home is paradigmatic to my practice, in which the photographic medium is equally important. For me, the photograph resonates with what is not seen in it, with the strangeness of what is not visible, what has no image. Through the image of the house, and along with questions surrounding the underlying principle of the image’s construction, I examine and undermine norms of representation.”
Catherine Edelman Gallery 