In her new exhibition, Hadas Hayun transforms the private into the public, displaying images scanned from her sketchbook over the past year, forming a bridge between her intimate world and the public, dynamic cityscape environs.
Each of the five two-sided light-boxes present images of changing density, comprising free, imaginative drawings connecting recognizable symbols such as eyes, hearts, suns, faces, flowers and birds which as we look at them change back and forth from clear shapes into abstract line and color patches, and so on. What at first seems familiar becomes at second (and third) glance into a dreamlike vision, an entire re-imagined world, created by the artist in a unique, personal way.
The artworks express a search for meaning and consolation through the act of art-making. Her generous cooperation in allowing us to peek into her internal world is an invitation from Hayun to all viewers to stroll through mental spaces for a few moments, to conduct a non-verbal conversation of contemplation and quiet – an unspoken dialogue between artist and viewer held in the language of symbols, colors, and imagination.
Entering the light-boxes, we enter into interior space as visitors, a space created out of Hayun’s vision – a meditative space in which the symbols become mandalas for us, an individual mental space in which art has the potential to be a refuge as well as a bridge to the imagination. This is an experience that blurs the boundaries between personal and collective, beckoning to us to leave our thoughts outside and allow room for something new to enter.
Text: Orna Granot
The exhibition is presented as part of the Outline Festival of Illustration and Words in Jerusalem.
Co-Curators: Orna Granot and Black Box
