Maya Gelfman
ART Habens
I ' m attracted to art because it ' s a two-way mirror , allowing parallel realities to not just co-exist but to enhance one another . Art can and should provide a place of transcendence , beauty , tenderness and even comfort while simultaneously evoking soulsearching , gut-wrenching feelings . When I was four years old , I had a near death experience while having an open heart surgery . That threshold rendezvous left me convinced that opposites are bound together . In my works I strive to encompass and echo this duality . They stem from that simultaneous sense of vertigo and stability . The diffusive exchange that transpires between the inner and outer worlds is at the heart of my workstation installation . The red yarn , egg-like coils are nesting at the foot of a table ( it ' s my actual studio work-table ). They symbolize subconscious potential and a source of conception . A single umbilical cord connects them to the workstation , where they are materialized into external forms . In The machine installation , the cord ( a single , continuous thread ) passes through an assembly of wheels , cogs and metal gears . This time it can be read as the transition of the human factor through the mechanisms of a system . The apparatus represent functions of a body , and so the ' thread of life ' is the blood line that drives and revives the machine . It may seem as if the harsh metallic inand-outs might tear it apart , but as the red thread runs full course it marks the passage of time and distance . When it comes out the other side intact , it manifests endurance and becomes a whole heart . Still , I deem that the details in themselves are almost meaningless . My work doesn ' t revolve around my personal story but rather uses it as a trigger and a catalyst to create objects and
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