Rima: Passages in Sephardic Sculpture by Rotem Tamir
August 8 - October 27, 2024
Rotem Tamir, Jerayah No.2 (Work in progress) 2024, Photo credit: Jeffery Sandeen
Rima: Passages in Sephardic Sculpture
Rotem Tamir
On View August 8 - October 27, 2024 | Main Gallery West
Curated by Sharon Toval
Opening reception | September 14, 2024, 4:00 - 7:00 PM
Spotlight Tour | Sunday, September 29 at 2pm
Virtual Artist Talk | Sunday, October 13th at 11:00 AM (CST)
Rochester Art Center is pleased to present Rima: Passages in Sephardic Sculpture, a solo exhibition by artist Rotem Tamir. The exhibition offers a profound exploration of ancient craft traditions interwoven with themes of cultural heritage, familial ties, and the resilience of women across generations.
In this captivating exhibition, Tamir delves into the domestic and communal practices linked to her Southwest Asian and North African heritage. Through sculptures and installations, she reflects on demanding domestic tasks traditionally associated with women, such as the crafting of wool mattresses, the preparation of the Iraqi dish kubbeh, and intricate fabric-making. These tasks, often requiring immense sacrifice, are depicted in Tamir’s work as both a celebration of women's strength and a meditation on the personal cost of tradition.
Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in a sensory experience that bridges past and present, as Tamir weaves a rich tapestry of cultural artifacts, sounds, and symbols. At the heart of the exhibition is a round mattress, a powerful symbol of the infinite spiral of existence. Sound artist Nir Jacob Younessi collaborates with Tamir, infusing the space with traditional Jewish songs sung by Tamir’s father and maternal grandmother, echoing the enduring power of oral traditions.
Tamir also incorporates elements of her personal history, including a conceptual chandelier made of pine rosin bubbles, evoking the timeless elegance of crystal chandeliers and honoring her Aunt Lisa’s daily candle-lighting rituals. The domestic space, crucial to these traditions, is embodied in interactive installations that invite visitors to engage with the artwork intimately.
Rima: Passages in Sephardic Sculpture is a multilayered exhibition that resonates with universal themes of identity, memory, and transformation. Tamir's work invites us to consider the invisible threads that connect us to our ancestors, urging us to reflect on the beauty and burden of our cultural legacies.
Join us for the exhibition reception on September 14, 2024, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM Meet Rotem Tamir and experience the unveiling of this poignant exhibition along with two others: Jealousy/Sway in collaboration with Hair + Nails Gallery and A World That Breathes Behind Itself: Melanie Pankau. Enjoy refreshments and music from Yonci.
Images left to right: Rotem Tamir Lev 2024; Long Live Your Hands (Ta’eesh Eedak), (work in progress) 2024; Jerayah No.2 (work in progress) 2024. Photo credit: Jeffery Sandeen
About the Artist
Rotem Tamir is an artist whose work delves into the traditions of object-making, tracing their evolution as they traverse time and space alongside their carriers. Through playful, material-driven processes, her creations explore themes of cultural fragmentation and displacement. Drawing inspiration from global heritages of pre-industrial domestic applied crafts, Tamir both honors their origins and reinvigorates them as subjects of contemporary inquiry into place, belonging, and post-feminist politics.
Originally from Israel, Tamir immigrated to the United States in 2011. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor in Sculpture at the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota. Tamir holds a Master's Degree in Fine Art from VCUarts in Richmond, VA, and a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design in Jerusalem. Her work has been showcased in exhibitions across the United States and internationally, including venues such as the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Harn Museum in Gainesville, FL, and the Artists' House in Tel Aviv.
Tamir's achievements include residencies at prestigious institutions like Sculpture Space in Utica, NY, Franconia Sculpture Park in MN, and Art OMI International Arts Center. She has also received notable awards such as the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship and the 2021 McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists. Tamir resides and works in Minneapolis, MN, with her partner and their son.
About the Curator
Sharon Toval, a curator and researcher of contemporary art, operates in the fields of visual arts Internationally. He curates exhibitions in museums, galleries, biennials, and more. Sharon holds a master's degree (M.A.) in Policy and Theory of the Arts, from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (2014) and specialized in museology studies at the Israel Museum under the guidance of Chief Curator Yigal Zalmona. Since 2018, Toval has been managing and curating The Lab in Tel Aviv, an experimental art space where he initiates research projects within various cultural and social contexts. Some of his significant exhibitions include: "Don't Go Too Far: works 1980-2022" a retrospective of the painter Haya Graetz Ran at the Mishkan Museum of Art (2023); "LONGING – BE LONGING", the first Israeli group exhibition in the UAE as part of the RAKART22 art biennale (2021); "Hshuma", a group show at MACT Museum of Art in Switzerland (2019); "Hod" (2018), a solo exhibition of Eyal Assulin at the Haifa Museum of Art; "Becoming", a research group show at the Hansen House (2014); "Terra Nova" (2012) at Moby, Bat Yam, and many other exhibitions.
Sharon grew up in Toulouse, France, and immigrated to Israel in the late 1980s to study industrial engineering and management at the Technion, Institute of Technology, Haifa. His multicultural background imbues his identity and allows for a broad understanding of collaborative nature across the globe. His curatorial vision manifests in constructing artistic bridges that seek to transcend the socio-political and geographical crises prevalent in the contemporary era.
This project was made possible in part with the support of Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, an initiative of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Support is provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Minnesota.
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