Tamar Harpaz’s installations function as encrypted and shattered mysteries, scenes throughout which clues are scattered. They require the viewer’s presence and gaze, as a forensic investigator collecting findings that can be revealed in a slight shift of perspective or body movement. Her enigmas are constructed from everyday objects embedded within a web of optical and kinetic mechanisms, through which they are reflected, replicated, and sometimes heard. Viewers wander between the physical presence of the objects and their reflection, witnessing but not always apprehending the overt manipulation at work, weaving the narrative maze.
Harpaz’s works are based on analog mechanisms yet defiant of the digital age in which they are present. They raise questions about current times, the elusiveness of perceiving reality, and the possibility of articulating tangible truths in a world reflected through screens and simulacra.
The meticulously measured installations are formed by a delicate craft of relationships between materials. They are born from chaotic work processes that begin with the collection of various references: from classic and esoteric cinema, through the history of sciences, to current events and personal experiences. These are brought into the studio, where Harpaz conducts wild experiments of sorts, applying physical forces to different materials. From these, she distills the specific mechanisms and images that will form the puzzle pieces of each of her works.
Spite Your Face is presented in the darkness of Hall 1 of Hazira, a space that, between performances, serves as a storage and workshop. Harpaz preserves the various uses of the space, and the installation appears alongside leftover sets and stored work surfaces. The darkness is pierced by beams of light projected onto colored glass panels, glittering facades that the light extracts their gleaming brightness. Simultaneously, the light reveals a network of reflections through which the backstage of the facade unveils. Like in a sadistic plastic surgeon’s operating room, the effort to suture the facial fragments, to hide and smooth the trauma, is exposed. The glow reveals the fragility of the facade and uncovers the violence and horror involved in maintaining a semblance of unity.
Spite Your Face will be on display in two rounds:
July 5-18, 2024
July 26-August 8, 2024
Opening hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 16:00-20:00
Friday: 12:00-16:00
