Idit Gilad’s Snap Trap
Idit Gilad, Snap Trap installation view, images by Eyal Agivayev.
In her first solo exhibition, Idit Gilad offers an alternative to reusing materials that the human body has already touched. It's an allegorical guide on how to get lost in our personal space, even when we're at home. Gilad's exhibition is the product of a process forged between herself and curator Meital Aviram, whose gallery is also her residence. The two lived together for a month while working on a site-specific exhibition that responds well to Aviram's space.
Gilad outlines the space with her installations and marks the domestic area using sculptural installations scattered throughout the apartment. By burning, welding, and casting, the artist uses materials she has on hand to shape readymade objects.
In Aviram's gallery, there's a palpable iron chain that divides the room. On one side of the chain, there is a rusted iron cage that holds a figure reminiscent of a toy soldier, made from wax. On the other side of the chain, a similar cage floats, but here, it serves as a holder for toilet paper rolls.
There's an interesting dissonance in the exhibition which accompanies the audience in every work. It's a feeling that someone has been here before, in the prehistoric sense and not just in the present time. It reminds viewers that they are visitors in Gilad's world.
Gilad takes on an enigmatic approach. Through her work, the artist creates a new existence for objects that are familiar to us and are found in our everyday lives.
The exhibition ends or perhaps begins, with the work "THE SIN OF PRIDE," in which a mirror is placed in the bathroom that the artist filled with lip-smeared lipsticks in pink and red shades. This repetitive and obsessive action signifies her existence — it marks her way even if she has difficulty seeing herself within hundreds of signs.
