Niv Tishbi: Sunbathing

Sun beds, loungers, tables and parasols, familiar from a beach setup, are placed throughout the area. Human forms in various sunbathing stages and resting positions merge into the fabric of the sun beds and loungers. Tishbi, whose oeuvre focuses on sculpture and on site-specific installations that form a comprehensive experience featuring an alternative to conventional observations, playfully disrupts the sunbathing figures and offers a new, thought-provoking discussion about our yearning for freedom and its illusion. The figures are lying down, detached from anxiety, and seem to be occupied with nothing but the present moment. Sewed onto the metal frame, they create a hybrid, or mutation, between the object signifying rest, comfort, freedom and the human body. They surrender their bodies to the blazing Israeli sun, melting into the fabric, merging with the object and become a mass-produced item that consecrates all our common, simple wishes: comfort, abundance and tranquility. Yet, along with the freedom and calm presented through the symbolism of the beach furniture, a slight sense of horror creeps into the consciousness, a sense of fear and even a stressful smirk, when faced with these generic human faces.