A solo exhibition

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"Plastic bags, thread, and light are the materials used in the exhibition 'Tissue Repair' by artist Shay Persil. Using disposable, non-degradable materials, produced through mass manufacturing, Persil creates single-use, non-degradable figures through a meticulous, artisanal process. She chooses to see life and beauty in these mass-produced, trivial materials that are meant to be discarded.
Persil, a puppeteer and performance artist, has connected the two aspects of her practice: she transforms inanimate materials into living imagery. The transparent plastic is filled with air and light, and with the help of thread, Persil weaves outlines and scar tissue, creating two series of works. In the larger one, the plastic bag transforms into empty human bodies and organs, through embroidery thread and light; in the other, the plastic bag serves as a ground for embroidery
reminiscent of the ancient feminine craft of tapestry.
Psychoanalyst and philosopher Didier Anzieu, who conceptualized the term " Skin-Ego," refers to the skin covering the human body as analogous to the psychological envelope of a person’s psyche: it is
the interface for interactions with the external reality; a container and protector for the inner organs; a boundary between the internal and external; and a surface on which traces of experiences– scars – are recorded. In Persil’s series of bodies and organs, the skin becomes the focal point of exploration, devoid of the organs it contains and delineates. The skin is represented through a material unforgiving of mistakes: it tears, wears out, and any mark left on it is irreparable. Thus, its protective, containing, collecting, and organizing functions are limited and inherently inadequate,
leaving the psyche exposed and unprotected.
All artworks in this exhibition were created over the past year, in response to the current war. In times when the ability to shield oneself from the world is nearly impossible – the interface with the world, the boundary with it, is perceived as particularly permeable and sensitive. Our bodily container can no longer protect us from the outside, recording the vulnerabilities it endures. In her
emptied skin-bags, Persil creates an image of unprotected and vulnerable lives. However, the transparency of the plastic-epidermis in the series of bodies and organs also suggests the possibility of shedding, of a new beginning, which light and air can fill and infuse with life, generating further human activity – as seen in the parallel series of tapestries.
The exhibition invites you to reflect on the concepts of inside and outside, shield and body, the world and the psyche, and what remains of them in times like these."
Curator: Dr. Erez Maayan Shalev