Metamorphosis of Matter: The Image as a Living Body. Interview with visual artist Gal Weinstein
An investigation into the tactile power of art, where the work evolves over time through corrosion, chemical reactions, and collective memory
Tell us what you do and your beginnings.
I am a visual artist working across various media, particularly relief and installation. My earlier works were based on formative and historical images from Zionist culture, approached with a mix of irony and innocence toward the collective culture I come from.
This was expressed through the choice of industrial, synthetic, and artificial materials to represent these images. My later works build on the earlier ones, both as raw material and as content.
I became interested in treating the works as an organic body that changes over time while seemingly remaining the same. This is one of the reasons I chose to work with materials that transform with time and respond to chemical reactions, such as coffee and different types of metal fibers.
What does your work aim to say?
Above all, my interest lies in creating a physical experience to communicate with the viewer. A good example of what I mean can be found in Caravaggio’s painting The Incredulity of Saint Thomas.
In the painting, Thomas reaches out his finger to touch Christ’s wound after the resurrection. He does not rely solely on what he sees; he must also verify it through touch.
The physical experience I am after lies in the tension between sight and touch, in the need to confirm vision through physical contact. In English, the verb “to touch” is also used metaphorically, as in “to be touched emotionally”.
In my work, I try to translate this metaphorical meaning into a concrete expression of the temptation to touch – almost a reconstruction of that primal moment of doubt between sight and touch.
Where do you find inspiration for your art?
For me, curiosity and attentiveness to my surroundings come before inspiration, because they make me more active in finding interest. A sentence I once heard from a professor during my studies still accompanies me today:
“Work with materials you don’t like. When you work with materials you dislike, you’re not afraid to play with them or destroy them”.
In that sense, I am drawn to material expressions of neglect – mold, rust, corrosion. The banal and the mundane are often the situations and materials where I find inspiration.
Could you give us some insight into your creative process?
My process combines playful trial and error with a strict inner logic of working with materials. These rules provide the structure that allows me to discover new expressive possibilities with the materials I use.
Sometimes a new process begins unexpectedly. I look for a solution to a very concrete problem. The solution I find does not necessarily resolve the problem, but it opens up a new horizon for the material I am working with – for example, steel wool.
By horizon, I might mean a different state of matter or a new surface quality that emerges.
What are your future projects?
I am at the beginning of a new project involving a wall relief and a sculptural installation. These works are based on iconic images from Zionist culture, undergoing material transformation and shifts of scale influenced by the exhibition space in which they will be shown.
At this stage, I am experimenting with different ways to realize the work. Since part of the project involves casting, I am currently exploring possibilities for creating the models that I will later digitize. It is also possible that these experiments will lead me to a very different process than the one I originally planned.
Interview by Fabio Pariante: X • Instagram • Website
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Gal Weinstein: Website