
Yael Toren, an Israeli artist, simultaneously works in the fields of computer video art, 3D animations, 3D ceramic printing, traditionally crafted paper works and glass.
Toren harnesses digital technology to evoke ethical issues, the ethics of the stranger and the Other and their interaction in the universal cultural space. In doing so, Toren adopts the language of computer games in which the virtual image, avatar, serves as an obedient servant to the algorithm and at the same time an elastic template, thereby addressing the intertwining among religion, political-social spheres and technology.
In the same space, Yael creates video works concerning the condition of man and his destiny in the 21st century, in the era of the Anthropocene. The ethical theme that is a central driver in her works casts a critical light on the status of the refugee and immigrant who are in constant motion in a world where stability has been taken away from them, in a world of migrant workers whose labor is traded in cheaply and erosively.
Yael charges her virtual sculptural objects with multiple, contradictory meanings, while bestowing upon them an archeological appearance, light years away from the digital rendering. Thereby she reveals mechanisms of control and power in a culture where any possible morality is eroded in the face of the narrow interest of the system.
Yael Toren earned her first degree with honors at the Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem and studied theatrical theory and stage design at Tel Aviv University. She won first prize in her MFA project at the University of Haifa. Recently she had a solo exhibition, curated by Professor Leonida Kovac at Kranjcar Gallery in Zagreb. In 2024, Yael has participated in The Contours of Otherness at the Jewish Museum of Venice.
Yael Toren is the author of various animations and video works among which are a video art for Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio opera, for the Kiel Opera House, a video art for Gefunden, a composition written by composer Amos Elkana for a poem by Goethe, as well as a video art for Elkana’s work presented at György Kurtág’s 80th birthday event in Neuhardenberg, Germany. As well Yael created a series of interactive video compositions including a piece for Toru Takemitsu presented at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. During the last decade Toren has developed a series of 3D animations that has become her distinct signature; Pieta, Dis-tense Terracotta, Plague among others, they each bring to life a haunting digital moment.
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Avi Ifergan, Director and chief curator of contemporary art at the Bar David Museum of Art and Judaica, Israel.