TAL AMITAI-LAVI

The series of works made from baking soda was born out of a search for an ice- or snow-like material—one with an elusive, vulnerable presence that evokes an enchanted, childlike, yet deceptive world. Generated by combining baking soda with glue, these slough-like reliefs depict forest scenery or frayed lace doilies. These fragile, ephemeral images suit the amorphous nature of the material, existing in the liminal space between two- and three-dimensionality as flat, material objects with a shell-like quality. Tal Amitai-Lavi carefully places these fragments onto the substrate, creating a crumbling, jewel-like structure that reveals the beauty of the transient and the perishable nature of existence.
The guiding principle in this series is the uncertainty principle. Working with unpredictable materials allows Amitai-Lavi only partial control, highlighting the interplay between the random and the deliberate, structure and spontaneity. Carried out in a meditative manner, her process seeks to freeze a memory or capture an elusive emotional moment. Like her previous projects, these works investigate "low," accessible domestic materials. Much like an alchemist, the artist searches her studio for a metaphorical philosopher's stone: emptiness striving for fullness, reduction striving for infinity