The practice of Etti Abergel (*1960, Tivon, where she lives and works) sets up a dynamic relationship between installation and sculpture. Her works are not only conceived for the site but are largely made on site, whereby the exhibition space becomes a lived-in, breathing environment.

“Memoir,” Abergel’s solo exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo, will include two distinct chapters intended for the two floors of the Center. The Ground Floor Gallery will feature an installation made up of, among other things, brocade mattresses, a wooden scaffolding that rises up to the balcony overhead, and a re-imagined chandelier. Upstairs, in the First Floor Gallery, individual sculptures will be displayed on plinths across the gallery floor, allowing a complementary kind of viewing experience in which each object can be grasped in its entirety. Seen together, the two chapters will convey how Abergel’s installation can be broken down into discrete units, which, in turn, carry the same “genetic code” as the totality.

Different forms of manual labor provide constant fodder for Abergel. Gesso, plaster, gauzes, rulers and levels, plywood slabs and sub-structures, all these and other materials typically used for construction mix together with the type of timeless objects one can find in stores (or the nearby Carmel Market), mostly from the realm of homemaking. In this, as well as in the simple material manipulations she performs, Abergel examines the ways in which we charge objects with meaning and emotion. In an almost clinical way, she seeks to inquire what is the minimum that can be ‘done’ to an object – itself a sort of “minimum entity” – to produce a significant emotional resonance, one that opens up to larger cultural issues of immigration, class, belonging, gendered labor, and more.

“Etti Abergel: Memoir” is curated by Tamar Margalit and is supported by the Rywkind Ben Zour Grant for Art, Education and Community, and Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts. Additional support by Nurith Jaglom and Nicole and Benjamin Fadlun. Hospitality kindly provided by Outset Contemporary Art Fund.

Through the Rywkind Ben Zour Grant, a select group of art students and recent alumni of Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art took an active and meaningful part in the exhibition. The artist wishes to extend her deepest thanks to each of them – Adir Cohen, Shir Cohen, Noa Mor and Masa Omar.

The artist also wishes to thank Ehud Alkov and Daniel Eichenberger for their help in mounting the exhibition; Nisan Eliyahu Cohen and Ya'ara Sofer for their assistance in the studio; and to Villa Maroc for their generosity. Special thanks to Tali Blumenau and Naama Arad.

Etti Abergel

Baskets, 2023 (detail)

Plastic baskets, rope, variable dimensions

Courtesy of the artist

Photo: Shlomo Serry