Installation detail and views of "Mezeg Ra" (2019), Site-Specific Installation at HaMekarer Gallery, Tel-Aviv.

 

Perspex, Styrofoam, Acrylic pigment, Polyurethane, Iron, Light, Wind, Engine.
180 cm height x 3 m diameter (lower level tower)
120 cm height x 120 cm deep (upper level iceberg)
Overall installation: 6 m x 6 m x 4 m

 

Bad Temper/Weather is a kinetic installation recreating a small-scale snowstorm.
It was exhibited as part of the “Mekarer 3” collective show in Hamekarer Gallery in Tel-Aviv in 2019.
 

The exhibition occupies two levels, divided by a partial wooden ceiling. On the top level, around 150 cm above the visitors' heads, a massive squared structure appears to be sinking in the roof, reminiscent of an iceberg. Right beneath it, sharp plastic objects peek through the wood, asymmetrically, hanging like stalactites, while water loops reflections hit the ceiling, giving the visitors the distinct impression of being underwater.

On the lower level, a small mountain of white cubes and torn, discarded plastic pieces leads the eyes towards the center of the space.

Here lies a transparent glass cube, the only intact and perfect square in the whole installation.

 

Inside the cube, a wind is trapped. It is created by several fans hidden inside the structure, which rotate constantly facing each other, and therefore create different competing winds of which I have no control as an artist once the engines start running.
The miniature storm is violent, as the snowflakes whirl around and hit the surface of the glass incessantly. The viewers experience a sense of danger, as it looks like any second the glass could break and the snowstorm could envelop the whole room.
The small flakes are trying to escape the miniature world, but they are never fully able to overflow and cross the borders in which they exist.
The creation of a microclimate reflects internal dynamics, above and below the surface of things. The styrofoam and plastic materials, eternal and synthetic, prompt a dialogue about the precociousness of ice and the temporariness of our natural  resources.
It’s about climate change, it’s about pollution, it’s about coping mechanisms and detachment, it’s about fear, it’s about control.

This is all encapsulated in its name “Mezeg Ra”, which in Hebrew has a double-folded meaning: bad weather and bad temper.