ARIELA WERTHEIMER

The exhibition Skin is composed of four works that are separate parts of a single journey:

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• Video Art

Compiled of about 250 photos of the underside of boats taken at a shipyard in Jaffa, where the barnacles that latch to the boat's bottom, hindering its movement, are scraped off. The scraping and recovery process – the journey of the boat until it is seaworthy again – is parallel to my life: events, experiences, the barnacles I gathered and the need to remove and scrape off the ones that hold me back. The video images merge and shift in a meditative rhythm, accompanied by a soundtrack that touches deep inside, in step with one's breathing, lingering at the edge of the consciousness.

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• Self-Portrait​​

"Self-Portrait" is a large work, 680cm by 460cm in size, printed on canvas and hanged on a wall. The work is made of two layers: the scraped bottom of the boat, and images of my own skin. The bottom of the boat and I are one. The scraping of the bottom exposes vulnerable skin patches in the boat's underlying layer. The skin is self-healing by nature and can regenerate, and it is through this work that the healing process begins. The image was hanged from up high and cascades downwards freely and unframed.

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• Untitled

Monochromatic, black and white photo printed on a 180cm by 220cm canvas. In its most basic form, the photo is of a boat's bottom, bringing to mind a galaxy, or perhaps a picture of wounds from an old black and white science book. The printed photo underwent a process of washing and scraping (like denim). Then, the canvas was laid on the floor over a pile of barnacles, forming a kind of hill, and the canvas was splattered with paint that flowed and pooled in different places. The end of the process resembles an abscess that had grown under the skin, had burst and then cleared.

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• Kaleidoscope

The work includes four small works (sized 80cm by 100cm) which are a combination of the bottom of boats and painting made in reference to them. The works were then covered in resin giving them a striking, colorful and shiny appearance, and at the same time preserved and fixed them. A deceiving color scheme, that also serves as camouflage. The works undergo the same process of recovery as the boat – the barnacles are removed, the boat repainted, and the paint is coated in epoxy, for protection.