CV

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Sivan Nishri's work is motivated by curiosity about the basic behaviors of materials: liquid is absorbed in paper. Powder is dissolved in liquid. Liquid spreads and solidifies. Solid heats up and melts. She works with the discoveries and accidents that occur when one lets materials do as they will. From these incidents in matter, images emerge: palm, hand, mane, jellyfish, cockscomb, wand, star; the images metamorphose and concatenate from one another other as the materials change form and state.

In the exhibition “Palm Star”, Nishri presents two bodies of work that developed simultaneously: paintings in mixed media on paper, and sculptures based on castings in different materials. The sculptures are created from one source object - a Washingtonia palm leaf – that undergoes a series of transformations. In some works the green leaf is ossified into a serrated wand or star; In others, the fan shape becomes a soft and flabby body. The cast show signs of the work process, in the flow and hardening of the wax and the rubber from which the moulds were made.

 The material process is present in Nishri's paintings just as much as in her sculptures: the paintings are created from the way the pigments are absorbed, flown, or washed away from the paper. The paper shows traces of these actions, with signs of stretching and contraction, peeling and abrasion. At first glance, the saturated colors and intricate pattersn in the paintings lead the viewer to a world of tropical mystery. Upon further inspection, one discovers that the exotic landscapes is made of everyday elements: a common ornamental plant, a woman driving a car, water-soluble markers. The mystery lies in transmutation of the work materials.