Land
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CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Yael Omer Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel
An artist's statement
S
ince the very beginning of my life as an artist I was attracted to sound as a mean to express my
self. When I started using sounds, it was more of a tool of documentation, in order to highlight real life episodes and bring them almost as is into the art scene. These could be intimate conversation took place in the public transport system, or a bunch of construction workers singing about their love. The recordings ended up woven in installation. Over time, and with much greater focus since starting my MFA studies, I was attracted to a more abstract interpretation and expression of what I hear. My currents works are still predominantly triggered by the surroundings - I find myself forced to react at or after the fact in way of reconstruction. My first and main role is documentation. These documents will then constitute the evidences and voices of the events I was attracted to and found some interest in. The events or details might be trivial, but for me they are a major discovery. These are pieces of reality that are lying unused beyond their basic functionality, but the way they crossed my path arouse something within me. Usually these moments will have a self-explanatory narrative that will tell its story at the moment of revelation. Most of the times these will be routine urban scenes. The relevant materials are finding their way into my recording devices, and from there to
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my archive on my mac. The sounds and voices are usually a realistic documentation of an event, but at times might be pre-manipulated if I know in advance what I intend to do with them. However, these are not ready-mades, which will find the way into my final composition as is. Their combination at this point seems random. At this stage these are nothing more than coded symbols that function as links to an experience, or memory. In my studio, I will listen to the archive materials, and mark the points from which I can start my journey. The sounds and visions that were recorded and archived will go through a series of manipulations and interpretations, to create meaningful sentences. The abstract and chaotic is gathering a form, a meaning, and usually will be directed into a semantic field that is an echo to the basic experience I was triggered by. These compositions, creations, are filters through which I can express my views about my experiences, and the processes we are going through. These sounds are telling something about the world, they have an opinion, they might agree or protest, and eventually they are transforming a reality into an alternate one. Through the sound, I sale to fictitious locations, to emotional experiences that portraits the places I lived in for several minutes. Yael Omer