Campus & Community

Reflections on chaos

2 min read

Israeli artist exhibits powerful response to turmoil

Adi
Through his work, Israeli artist Adi Yekutieli attempts to express a basic human response to the violence in the Middle East. (Staff photo by Stephanie Mitchell)

In “Gut Reflections. Israel. Palestine. 2002,” Israeli artist Adi Yekutieli uses diverse artistic media to convey an emotional response to the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Subtle yet powerful, Yekutieli’s work avoids the use of violent images or specific coherent political statements, focusing instead on the human condition.

“Gut Reflections. Israel. Palestine. 2002,” curated by Yael Nativ and showing at Adams House, is an installation configured from three elements: two pieces of molded parts of the artist’s body filled with raw cow guts; a series of 29 images consisting of some of the artist’s artwork done in the past 20 years, some of the artwork he did with Arab communities in the last six years in Israel and Palestine, and some photos representing local reality; and, finally, fragments from an e-mail exchange between Yekutieli and a Palestinian woman he met in Balata Refugee Camp in the summer of 2000.

Through his work, Yekutieli expresses a basic human response to the violence in the Middle East. He attempts to create an open space for dialogue between people on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Born in Haifa, Israel, in 1958, Yekutieli holds an M.F.A. in studio art from the Claremont Graduate University in Southern California. He has presented more than 20 individual exhibits and participated in more than 40 group exhibits in galleries and museums in the United States, Japan, Europe, and Israel.

The exhibit is organized by the Netivot Fellows, and is largely sponsored by Harvard Hillel.

The mixed media installation “Gut Reflections. Israel. Palestine. 2002,” will be on display at the Adams House Art Space, 10 Linden St., through April 18. Galley hours are Monday through Thursday, 7-9 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2-5 p.m.