Boei, 2003, plaster, paint and crystals, 40 x 45 x 35 cm, courtesy of the artist, photo: Jacob Mehager
Shay Id Alony
An interdisciplinary artist who came to art from the world of architecture and design, Shay Id Alony deals with the affinity between space and the subject, between rigid construction and the soft body that resides within it. In his mask sculptures, Alony focuses on the buffer zones that link the inside of the body with its mantle: the nose, the eyes, the ears and the mouth. The grotesque element is highlighted along these edges, which act to bring to the fore the body's material aspect through grafting, exaggeration and disruption. The sculptures, some of which were executed on motorcycle chassis, have demonic and archaic characteristics. They look like comical hybrids of Walt Disney themes and the African masks that exerted such an influence on the cultural imagination of the early 20th Century. The masks' grotesque dimension has been linked to rituals, dress-up and camouflage - carnivalesque characteristics with roots in Medieval and Renaissance Europe.
Born in Tel Aviv, 1974; lives and works in Tel Aviv
