Carolina Lehan & Oded Yones Talks symbolism, working as a duo and fleeing the city

The ‘Drainage Basin’ Exhibition at Barbur Gallery, 2021. Curated by Photo by Daniel Hanoch

Carolina Lehan and Oded Yones, 29 years old from Tel Aviv, met during their admission tests to Bezalel Academy. This was the starting point of a beautiful friendship in which they shared a studio throughout their studies and worked on joint projects, among them, their graduation exhibition. 

We caught up with them to chat about their joint work as emerging artists at the beginning of their careers.

Oded Yones and Carolina Lehan

ggg: What are your sources of inspiration, and which content worlds you are coming from? 

C&O: The environment in which we are working activates us, as in a sort of collection process we collect elements, images, and narratives. Later we cut and weaved them together. What keeps us busy in the works is life itself.

You could say the content is constantly changing and accumulating. The way of action is like a collage and, in a sense, it allows you to be in a naive place with freedom of action. There is a strange connection between digital, industrial, or urban worlds (playgrounds, construction sites) versus natural and spiritual ones. Usually, the content is revealed while working.

‘Spikes and Clouds’, part of ‘Gymboree’ studio show, 2020. Photo by Oded Yones

ggg: There seem to be many influences from childhood memories - playgrounds, sandcastles, childish images that often meet rigid materiality. Where do these images come from? Why was this encounter created?

C&O: The images come from a world of personal concepts and meet in the joint space that is the studio. When we graduated, we moved to work in a shared studio to continue our dialogue. We chose Rishpon as a relatively quiet place where Carolina grew up, away from the city, close to the sea and nature.

During the first lockdown, we moved into the studio. The disconnect and the strange period led us to open a series of new works under the title "Gymboree," thinking of a place that contains a shared collective memory, the same playful and artificial space such as the mall. 

A group exhibition, ‘Achitofel’ 2020, on the Third Floor on the Left. Carolina Lehan, Oded Yones and Meshi Cohen. Curated by Meital Aviram. Photo by Elad Sarig

Details from the ‘Achitofel’ Exhibition, 2020. Photo by Oded Yones

ggg: What experience do you want to convey to the viewer?

C&O: We are interested in a dialogue between the viewer and the place. The place acts as a kind of visual sample of one moment and will allow a conscious wandering and breaking of the gallery's concept.

In the group exhibition "Achitofel" on the Third Floor on the Left, we worked together with Meshi Cohen. We built an enlarged sand palace with artificial rocks and other objects for beach games. We wanted to appropriate the childhood memory of building a castle in the house of curator Meital Aviram.

A part from the ‘Drainage Basin’ Exhibition at Barbur Gallery, 2021. Photo by Daniel Hanoch

ggg: What do the symbols and emojis that often recur in your works mean? 

C&O: The use of symbolism is repeated in works that occur with the thought of eroding and reworking their meaning. In the joint work, a dialogue is created between these symbols that everyone brings with them. The symbols are part of a more internal conversation about gender and identity, femininity and masculinity, personal and public. They are appropriated for works, sometimes appearing as scribbled graffiti "by the way" and other times acting as the essence of the work.

A part from the ‘Drainage Basin’ Exhibition at Barbur Gallery, 2021. Photo by Daniel Hanoch

ggg:  Tell us about your work process. How do the shared dynamics affect the work? 

C&O: We both grew up in youth movements, we are influenced by worlds of camping, and this aesthetic inspires works.

We decided to go on a few days trip on the Jordan River. When we returned to the studio, we started a series of charcoal drawings, and these drawings charted our way to understand the narrative of the exhibition and how to place it in space. It's a bit like putting together a puzzle, but the pieces are not in a box, we are going out to look for them, and every so often, someone comes back with another piece.

We created the installation with the water flow path in the streams in mind, up to their drainage place - the basin, a breaking moment that contains a state of change, a recalculation of a route. A situation that contains chaos and homer and speaks of a state of blasting or a breaking point.

We also tend to work alone. Working together helps to continue to create, break down ideas, work on large-scale projects, and exit from the self to the other.

Carolina Lehan. A part from the ‘Drainage Basin’ Exhibition at Barbur Gallery, 2021. Photo by Daniel Hanoch

Oded Yones. A part from the ‘Drainage Basin’ Exhibition at Barbur Gallery, 2021. Photo by Daniel Hanoch

ggg: What are you currently working on?

C&O: Now we have finished a series of exhibitions, together and separately. We want to deepen the work in the studio and be in a state of absorption with future projects in mind.