The Textwork of Yael Kanarek: Visualizing Language
Tuesday, November 9 @ 7:00PM
University of Colorado at Boulder
Visual Arts Complex Auditorium- 1B20
Boulder, CO 80301
Free and open to the public, please RSVP as space is limited.
CU's Program in Jewish Studies and the CU Art Museum together with the Boulder community collaborative series, Movers: Do You Speak Jewish? welcomes New York artist Yael Kanarek for a unique performance that examines how language and numbers create an emotional landscape.
Inspired by her own upbringing in Israel, Kanarek draws from the multilingual landscape of her childhood working with Hebrew, Arabic, English and Yiddish in her large-scale installationcurrently on display at the CU Art Museum as part of the museum's inaugural show, archiTECHtonica ( http://cuartmuseum.colorado.edu/exhibition/architechtonica-5/).This piece titled, Untitled (L'Origine) uses the word "eye" in these four languages to create an eye-shaped portal. Evoking a softer, organic architectural aesthetic, the piece references both the human eye and the "evil eye," a symbol that runs through numerous cultural and religious traditions of the Middle East, including Jewish, Arabic, Muslim and Christian cultures emanating from that region.
Kanarek's work explores how languages shape space and how their presence in space signifies cultural territory and sovereignty. What opportunities emerge when languages intersect? In Israel, narrative - both ancient and modern - plays a dramatic role in defining people's lives. Her work tests this idea by shuffling around the languages that make up the semantic landscape of her childhood. Next to one another, English, Hebrew, Arabic and Yiddish generate a charged, nervous space to navigate. Her multidisciplinary performance on November 9 at 7PM in the CU Art Museum's Visual Arts Complex Auditorium room 1B20, will demonstrate how one crosses from one world to another; what it means to root oneself in the difference between cultures. Through her internet artworks, sculptures, wall works and computational video projects, she will articulate the experience of living in more than one language and in more than one social construct. Her presentation will look at the difference between "I" and "myself" and she'll point to simple facts that demonstrate how we are interconnected despite feeling separate.
Guests are encouraged to view her piece currently on display in the CU Art Museum prior to her performance. The CU Art Museum is open Monday - Friday from 10 - 5, Tuesday from 10 - 7 and Saturday from 12 - 4. Attendees of the Yael Kanarek performance can visit the museum immediately preceding the event. Please visit the CU Art Museum website at www.colorado.edu/cuartmuseum for more information about the location of the Visual Arts Complex and the CU Art Museum.
**Events require an RSVP as seating is limited due to fire code restrictions. Attending an event without an RSVP may require waiting until all those who have RSVP'd are seated or being turned away if the room has reached capacity. **