Israeli installation artist Dina Shenhav is preoccupied with the reciprocal relations between man and nature and with the complexity stemming from man’s status as both sovereign and subject in a variety of archeological, ecological, political and social contexts.
Known for creating immersive tableaux vivant-style installations, Shenhav uses soft materials like ash or foam to sculpt powerful scenes of domestic and urban life and destruction. For the installation, Shenhav meticulously recreates a hunter’s cabin, complete with all of the tools of his trade: rifles, knives, guns, tree stumps, ammunition, traps, taxidermy deer heads and fur pelts.
She sculpts each item individually using yellow mattress foam, and set them within a meticulously detailed hunt shack interior crafted of the same material. Items from the hunter’s camp come together as an immersive environment, with every detail of his life and work—his boots, table, even the food on his plate—hand carved by the artist in the pliable yellow foam.
Dina Shenhav was born in Jerusalem, 1968 and lives and works in Israel. Shenhav is an installation artist dealing with the complex relationship between man and nature. Working in large-scale installations, video, photography and painting, she earned her BFA from Hamidrasha School of Art and her MFA in Haifa University. She has exhibited in over 20 solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions worldwide, among them: Arte Laguna, Arsenal of Venice; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Helena Rubinstein Pavilion, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA), Jersey City; Art in General, New York; and Goethe-Institute, St. Petersburg
Art Center, Miami Florida, November – December 2015
Curator: Tami Katz-Freiman
