Maya Gelfman
ART Habens
My ideas first come to me as visual fragments and a physical sensation , usually in my hands , of something abstract materializing into tangible form . I start to lay down conceptual and technical premises and then I work my way from there . Funny yet appropriate we should start with the Shell , as this specific piece actually encapsulates exactly that . It ' s the artistic womb from which I emerged , a metaphysical pocket of creation itself .
I started it by lying on the floor in a fetal position and drawing a line around myself , much like a child would draw a line around their palm and fingers . My choice of materials was simultaneously intuitive and cognizant . Introducing different materials layers the works with sub-meanings and shades . It enables me to charge them with the origins of each material while also constituting a new significant synthesis . But I also choose my materials acting upon instincts and what feeling they convey to me . I ' m looking to find a material that harbors the essence of an idea rather than the ability to best simulate it .
I then continued to construct a " bony " structure around my initial fetus form , using iron net and twisted cloth hangers . I wanted to create a cocoon-like shape , then split it open and turn it into an organism that can sustain a memory of life . For this end I used red wool , a material that has a fuzzy almost biological quality to it . I cut each thread by hand and tied them one by one to the skeleton , so that the insides my empty shell were weaved through and through with red plumage . I ended up using more than 300,000 pieces of yarn , and this stage took 6 months . The long and Sisyphean process served as an embodiment of the meticulous process in which a shell is created in nature , one crisp layer at a time .
The Shell was exhibited in a way that frames a particular space which is neither closed nor open . It invited the viewers to go around it but also to
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