Through the Beauty

The exhibition Through the Beauty brings together the artists Ylona Aron and Hagit Shahal once again. This is an encounter of artists - colleagues, based on mutual appreciation and a long-lasting friendship. Both artists differ in their artistic language, yet there are similarities in the core of their work. For example, the surprising encounter between reality, fantasy and beauty, created by capturing a daily, banal activity. Both artists process the details of the environment relevant to them, with representations of feminine objects, the human body and portraits.

Shahal and Aron met in the 1970s when they were at the onset of their artistic journey, each working to develop their visual and artistic language. The characteristic of Shahal's works at the time was an expressive drawing line, on the verge of abstraction. In later works she conducted a dialogue with different modes of Abstract Expressionism, Pop-Art as well as Super- Realism, dealing with body parts, portraits and documenting her surrounding.

Aron, who used to be a dancer and choreographer in the 1960s (at the Royal Ballet Sadlers Wells in London), combined different techniques in her works and contents, inspired by various media. In the 1970s she created Minimalist collages as well as short videos with affinity to movement and body art, Dada and Pop. Later she worked with Photo-Collage and photographs, using materials derived from advertising and mass media.

The first collaboration between the two artists was a short video, which Ylona directed in 1975 and in which Shahal participated. The video was taken in Hadassa Hospital in Jerusalem, with its in-house equipment. This piece is a type of a poetic expression of femininity and beauty as well as a take on the fragility of life. The video was shown at Debel Gallery in Ein Karem (1976), and was lost shortly after it was sent to an international video festival in Venice, Italy. In occasion of this exhibition it has been decided to recreate it.

Hagit Shahal often deals with her self-portrait. The portrait ranges between expression, sorrow, and introvertedness. She examines the changes occurring in her portraits as time passes by. The artist's figure directs her gaze, exposed and fragile. She stares at her own reflection in the mirror, examines her face as she applies her make-up. She has no need to idealize her image. She glances inwardly, does not aim to impress the viewer, but only to imply inner facets.
Other works in the exhibition are from the series "Shoes I have yet to wear". These works were created with black and white industrial paints, gold on paper, drawing and engraving. The shoes lay against their background, sketched and refined, with a strong emotional presence. As Shahal says: "These shoes are a kind of self portrait, a type of an observation on reality, a farewell to a fantasy, to things I will not be able to accomplish".

Aron's Collage pieces maintain a continuous dialogue with her surrounding – in photos, postcards and advertisements. She captures images and details from everyday life, exposes their form and intensifies them as in a close-up photograph. Aron often uses fragments of the female body, fashion accessories and elements borrowed from street culture. By photographing the images, multiplying and reversing them, she constructs and breaks beauty myths and thus grants the images new meanings. She creates movement and rhythm, which she interrupts by adding new elements, exposing the viewer to a reality of contrasts and oppositions. Between multiplicity and summary, the bizarre and the trivial, Aron's works outline a choreography of fragments, illustrating a mosaic of life.

Irit Levin, Curator