BoysCraft

Assaf Rahat

Assaf Rahat's works depict masculine figures in violent and intimate states - the Sacrifice of Isaac, a father and son in the bathtub, two fighting monkeys and an angry Cyclops. The use of soft materials, which grow rigid as they are knotted together, presents the figures as caught in the throes of an eternal struggle. Rahat dialogues with the history of art, as is evident in the scene in which Abraham raises the knife over Isaac's neck. Inspired by Caravaggio, this painting underscores, according to the artist "a primeval form of masculinity rife with sexual urges, violence and a lust for power." The process of interweaving and coiling the threads - and the relations between unraveling, condensing and discarding materials - enable Rahat to reveal holes, tears, cracks and breaches which he views as symbols of castration anxiety and impotence.

Born in Tel Aviv, 1970; lives and works in Tel Aviv