Ahava - Soap Balls, 1996
Installation, 80 x 205 x 159 cm.
©image: M HKA
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK6935_M167).
Tzaig’s installation Ahava Soap Balls consists of two elements: a washing table, the basin of which is shaped to mirror the contours of the Dead Sea, and in which the visitor can wash his or her hands; and a small video monitor depicting the hirsute torso of a man washing himself with the ahava balls referred to in the title of the work. Ahava is the name of a well-known cosmetic product rich in minerals that are unique to the Dead Sea’s singular ecology; the act of washing is in itself of course steeped in memories of both ritual and Biblical mythology, and the cultural obsession with cleanliness a defining feature of our fantasies of ‘Orientalism’ – represented here by the quintessential middle-eastern man (Arab? Jewish?), whose face we never get to see.
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Artist
> Uri Tzaig.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: The collection I – Fall 2002. M HKA, Antwerpen, 31 August 2002 - 10 November 2002.
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> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
> Ensemble: Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
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> Ensemble: Interaction.