Masha Yozefpolsky | מאשה יוזפפולסקי
to sleep
golem detaches
gathers its gaze
within a vision field
something appears
from time to time
yet could
have been
the search of
a passage towards
continues
Photograms on aluminium and wood
25 cm x 30 cm x 9 cm
Haaretz Art Collection
Soon, video 02:28 min, loop, mute
i see them
moving further away in a field
voices scatter
reality penetrates
you say remove
the skin condemned
to wander on the edge
wrapped she flies
fast under the ground
captured by split
voices in a cyclical track
eyes illuminate
waxed walls
The Artists House, Jerusalem 1996
Artfocus 1, International Art Biennial
On entering the space
one may collect and
keep semi-transparent,
word ‘talismans’, derived
from the video films.
Six monitors facing the
ceiling, transmit acts,
each indicate a possible
escape – hatchways.
The flow rhythm is
incessantly interrupted
by flashing word
fragments. This
succession of word-
images creates an
additional allegedly
decoding tracks of
perception.
On the opposite side
a single monitor
transmits a white
image and recording
of dream-tellers,
each in her/his mother
tongue. Their
fragmentary voices are
heard through
earphones.
The space window is
blocked by raw shellac
flakes, that are
periodically illuminated
by a spotlight.
Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Aviv 1998
A laundry-soap sculpture splits the entrance verge and envelopes the viewer with its strong smell
on junctions
children abducted
someone eats feet
trapped in words
gives birth to
a giant peasant
makes sex with him
flies fast
under the ground
seeds in pits
concrete sun
out of city
missing fish
sea retreats
in silence
amber light
on sea bed
naked girl
dances on
stone jellyfish
someone marks
a name
refugees in Lapland
vomits into
his mouth
burnt forest
soldiers in robes
marching
towards west
wants to sleep
an army
spread over
wait in silence
she burns clothes
black sun
dear cloud collector
white pages
through mist
hole
sees them
getting further
cold light
you say no way
war songs within
transparent corridor
stop talking
has been teaching
you to fly for
a long time
As Fata Morgana
of psycho-physical
geography, North
Cut sabotages its
components by
transforming the
light, sound, image
and matter into
an obscure entity.
Where would
you want to be?
Recorded voices
are heard as their
echoes derive an
immeasurable
vast space.
Dissolved Nordic
terrain and
dream-texts are
projected upon
a platform of
crashed glass
set on the floor.
The magic ice
light bits of glass,
eventually cease
to seduce and
begin to cut.
Another video
transmits a
perpetual act of
licking a glass
board, as of an
animal attempting
to heal or clean
its wound.
Camera Obscura Gallery, Tel Aviv 1999
The installation, by its heterogeneous codes, point to uncertainty regarding coherent interpretation. An experience of violent-poetic disorientation is outlined. Within this labyrinth, one is obliged to wander about the riddle tracks of perception.
The vector points to a delay, freeze or to a possible reconstruction of the immanent map.
Poetry is an ultimate survival-zone, in spite of the absent northern exit and a redeeming sphere beyond it. Still.
irrelevant name of a street, square… is integrated into each instruction; thus, finding a way out is being undermined. sound of viewer’s movement on the rough salt, mingled with the recorded voices, creates a noise trapped within the space. The viewer, whose presence alters the topography, while salt darkens and its surface is disturbed – falls prey to disorientation.
A city, traditionally perceived as a network of cultural systems and as the opposed to nature, ceases to shelter the present mind.
At the entrance a 10” monitor transmits documentation of E.E.G shot during my sleep in a cell at the Institute for Sleep Research. The floor of an eye-shaped space is covered by a thick layer of rough salt. Neon light traps contain abstract, semi organic images, traces from far away, perhaps neglected primes. Simultaneously the images suggest a futuristic testimony of a living presence, a memorial preserved in a salt cell.
“Guide me to the northern exit of the city”. Recorded instructions are heard, but an
series of 17 objects, 18cm X 30cm X 12cm
Tel Aviv museum of Art, 2000
We stroll
the tracks of the
world, as an abusive
reality penetrates
our dreams.
In an attempt to
escape cultural
borders, devoid of
a sense of direction,
one wills to avoid
the logical syntax.
As dialectical terms
are shut down
and lexicon of
dichotomies is
replaced by the
vocabulary of vast
distances, one
can stutteringly
report one’s
experience.
In the gap of time,
something neglected
and forgotten, is
slowly restored.
Sometimes.
Museum Of The Underground Prisoners,
Jerusalem 2004, Art Focus 4,
International Biennial of Contemporary Art
Any attempt to
reconstruct past
events cannot be
perceived in
objective terms
or a firm structure.
A mute video
manifests incident
taking place
on the surface of
the sea and in its
depths. A white
dress hovers,
testifying to
something that had
once been there
and is exposed
to the lens of a
fidgety camera
ferreting for clues.
Different filming
times are joined
Into a delusion of
linear recorded
case, as evidence
turns Into an
elusive and
diverse document.
Anima, one channel video 02:41 min. Loop
Anima, video stills 20 cm X 25 cm Lambda prints, plexiglass, debond
Herzlia Museum of Art 2004 Embroidered Action
את אומרת שיש פה הרבה חיילים מתים
ты говоришь что здесь много мертвых солдат
ולוקחת אותה למסלול המראה
и берешь ее на взлетную полосу
זקנה חכמה באה מהים
мудрая старуха возвращается с моря
לבשל עד שהעצמות נמסות שעתיים לפני הסוף לזרוק את הזימים לטחון ולהקפיא
варить до растворения костей за два часа до конца выкинуть жабры перемолоть и заморозить
אוכלים הכול כל הזמן לבלוע ולהקיא
жрут все время глотать и вырывать
מתרסקים ברחובות
разбиваемся вдребезги на улицах
טרוטי כמיהה עוגבים על האתר הבא
находясь в постоянной смутной похоти
מהר לא נשאר זמן
быстро не осталось времени
בצמתי ערים נחטפים ילדים
на перекрестках городов похищаются дети
נכנסת לחצרות באודסה
вхожу во двора Одессы
את שרה מאד יפה
ты поешь очень красиво
ברבורים אגם שחור
лебеди черное озеро
מחכה מתחת לגשר
жду под мостом
מכוסה בסדין את חוזרת לפה כדי ללכת
закутанная в простыню ты возвращаешься для того чтобы уйти
מי אתם? מה אתם עושים פה?
кто вы такие? что вы тут делаете?
רצים ברגליים פצועות
бежим на раненых ногах
אפשר לראות את השעה בעיני החתולים
можно увидеть час в кошачьих глазах
בשדה רחב יש כתם כהה
темное пятно на необъятном поле
דוקרת למוות בבואות ברבורים
закалываю насмерть лебединые отражения
you say that there are many dead soldiers here
and take her to a runway
a wise old woman comes from the sea
to cook until the bones melt, two hours before the end,
throw the gills, grind and freeze
constantly eating anything, swallowing and throwing up
crashing on the streets
bleary with yearning, lusting for the next site
hurry up, time is running out
children are being abducted on urban junctions
entering into courtyards of Odessa
you sing very well
swans, black lake
wait under the bridge
covered with a bed sheet, you come back here in order to go
who are you? what are you doing here?
running with wounded feet
one can see the hour in cats’ eyes
there is a dark stain in a broad field
stabbing to death swans’ reflections
Krolikarnia Museum,
Warsaw 2006
Raft Of The Medusa
Fish heads are
Set on salt’s
surface, their
eyes are
cut out and
relocated in
different
eye sockets.
The second
film reveals her
gestures in
a semi trance
state.
Urgent voices,
breaths and
pee-act are
heard within a
mind-womb
like space.
The films are screened within a glossy black space. The viewer oscillates in between the visual-audio images.
Extract, two channel video 03:02 min. Loop
Disobeying memory leaves us
with an acute yearning for the
past, which one will never be
able to know. To wonder in
a repressive reality, striving
for utopian realm – nowhere.
Denied unity through hybrid
language of mental remains,
Valerians dance and efface
themselves concurrently in
approximate Dervish circles.
The viewer encircles the
screened tracks and surpass
the culminating sum of images.
Delineation of time, its
division into a coherent order
is but a vain attempt.
The installation constitutes
a poetic critical sphere,
where being is channeled
into the question of navigation.
The lack of synchronization
between the visual and vocal
images reinforces the illusory
kaleidoscope of the whole.
The Artist’s House, Tel Aviv 2007
Born in rivers salmon
migrate to the ocean in a
three-year journey of
thousands kilometers.
Survivors navigate back to
their original river of birth.
After spawning they die and
their bodies feed their offspring.
Memory of their death is
imprinted in the
sphere of their birth.
Valerian – Used as a sedative for sleep disorders and anxiety – antispasmodic.
Can affect a visual field of dream or prompt a state in between sleep and wakefulness.
Garment – Shiny, scrawl, split, enveloping a grotesque, clownish, pilgrim-like entity.
Films – A set of actions oscillating between self-irony and poetic spasms. The totality of fragments constitutes disorientation and an experience of narratives that change while walking around. In the tension created between unity and multiplicity, an ecstasy of silence is outlined.
Photography – An almost static camera documents a hybrid creature marking elusive territories, dreaming itself in wakefulness.
Surfaces – Silico carbonate powder is used in the manufacturing of sandpaper.
Sound – Human voices and sublime, but distorted glass sound, are heard on the verge of anxiety.
It begins where the tongue stops.
A flickering radiance of sugared rats, residues of speech, a sweetened drink, artificial eyes, running-out melatonin. Then a fragmentary rustle of malignant survival. Swallowing and being swallowed. Topography of hybridization.
We do not see or hear too well. It is for the better. An existence of disappearance.
The girl has drowned. Perhaps. She now rests on an elevated surface. They run, stand, surround. Moist muffled voices.
In a foreign mother tongue you refuse to cooperate, transgress borders, occasionally marking sealed occurrences. Seeing her in the territory of this and that, neither this nor that.
He is almost as beautiful as a woman, a crystal brow, slowly moving long fingers.
The knight’s daughter is a pilgrim hobbling along in disposable shoes.
The clown has a greenish-pink back and a transparent mask at the northern end of an unstitched map.
To heal the healer? Perhaps. Definitely. Perhaps.
You sort root barks, garner cat’s claws, and regenerate flawed, missing organs.
She is multiplicity. You are a constant motion of wandering averted, erased tracks.
All is poisoned. The only constant is the speed of light. To observe and forget.
Valeriana, video stills 2 – 7. Edition of 7, Lambda print, plexiglass, debond, dimensions variable.
Valeriana, video stills 9 – 14. Edition of 7, Lambda print, plexiglass, debond, dimensions variable.
Two video screens are
facing each other.
One seems to be filmed
out of a cellar or a bunker
during a feast. Twelve
people in black
sitting to a table, stuffed
with white and red
desserts, milk and wine.
The participants dine
in perfect attention and
definite silence.
Dressed in an artificial
fur coat and hat,
I hold a knife and do
not eat. A girl seats in
front of me.
She is a stranger.
Spiral camera motion
scans this event of
a decadent syntax.
On the opposite side of
the space, another film
documents bats in
a delirious flight out
of a deserted industrial
building at sunset.
Sound swings between
the two ends of the
installation’s space,
manifesting memory
remnants, silence, bats’
cries, city sounds, and
a whispered recitation
of a Russian child-song.
The whispered lyrics
are a prayer of a child
for “the infinite being of
sun, sky, mother and me”.
MOBY Museum Of Art, 2008
In cryonics -273°C is a
temperature in which deep
freeze of the dead is
performed for their
presumed future thawing.
Freezing is an omnipotent
act of an infinite
indetermination, by
which life is analogous
to fabula. Being in suspense
as a form of hibernation is
an attempt to defeat death.
We are in malignant
disorientation, therefore
other reality based
on suspense is crucial.
We are the remnants
of the future. Forgetting.
Amidst longing, dread
and brutality
with a sober view on
the futile lust of the
present era, poetry is
an ultimate
survival territory.
d: 60 cm x h: 70 cm
polyester resin, silicon, glass
Florentin45 Art Gallery, Tel Aviv 2012
Excerpt comprised of
paintings, sculpture and
video that exposes
fragments of interior
and exterior, shot
mainly from a window
at sunrise in south Tel
Aviv, documenting it’s
transparent zone of
refugees, poor
sanitation, neglected
population, wondering
street cats, violent
politics and malignant
forces. This ‘room with
a view’ outlines our
being as deprived and
stolen of our selves.
The real is seen as a
theatrical set marked
by a bird- cage
constructor exposing
his craft on the
pavement in front of his
shop. We wake up to a
nightmare, manipulated
by suggestive voices
based on self-help
recordings, promising in
vein healing and
solace. One oscillates
between the vast
somewhere and the
nowhere.
51 cm x 40.5 cm
oil on canvas
The Gallery, kibbutz Beeri 2016