A Gleam Of Amber | Duo Exhibition with Eyal Agyvayev | Curator: Karen Dolev | Binyamin Gallery,
Tel-Aviv

5.10.22 – 31.10.22

"And I saw as the appearance of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it,
from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward,
I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about."
Ezekiel 1:27

The Book of Ezekiel opens with what the Sages called “Maaseh Merkava”, a text dealing with the nature of divinity. The prophet Ezekiel sees in his vision the chariot, a kind of moving machine on which a divine figure stands. This description is a symbolic representation of a spiritual reality.

The chariot is described as a stormy wind coming from the north together with a great cloud, fire, and electricity. At its base stand four creatures, each with four faces. The creatures stand on four enormous wheels, each of them containing dozens of pairs of eyes. Above them stands the firmament, a surface that shines and glows. Above it sits a throne, and upon it a divine figure with a human-like appearance, seen dimly through the surrounding waters, mist, and fire.

Ezekiel uses the expression "the appearance of electricity" to describe the figure he saw in his vision. This is the earliest written appearance of the word electricity. Its meaning is debated among commentators. Some compare it to amber (in Greek, electrum) or copper. The Mishnah associates it with divine beings or angels, and according to Rashi it is the name of a specific angel.

In their first joint exhibition, Eyal Agivayev and Yishay Hogesta present works from the past year: paintings and sculpture by Hogesta, and photography and sculpture by Agivayev. Their works relate to a phenomenon that sometimes appears in the planned urban environment. Places of accidental disorder that seem arranged according to a new logic. Objects and materials that appear unrelated come together in an aesthetic, almost mystical way. Finding such places in the urban space creates a feeling of strangeness with a non-human quality.

For Agivayev and Hogesta, these moments offer comfort, a deviation from familiar reality and a glimpse into another one, a hint of something large, foreign, and hidden. Their raw materials are refuse and remnants, through which each forms personal moments of discovery.