Ye’ela Wilschanski “Queen Size Aqueduct”

mh PROJECT nyc

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mh PROJECT presents a site-specific installation “Queen Size Aqueduct”, by a New York based Israeli artist Ye’ela Wilschanski.

Ye’ela Wilschanski explores ways in which architecture and communal beliefs function as additional layers of restrictions on the body. An article of clothing may be worn by one person, but the codes that it reinforces suggest the presence of a chorus. For the past four years, she has been constructing wearable sculptures that transform throughout her performances. At mhPROJECTnyc, she is developing a new phase of her practice that responds to the restrictions of the pandemic.

“Queen Size Aqueduct” is made of nine garments hanging on three walls of a cube. The footprint of the cube is a queen size mattress, and its height is the artist’s height. The fabric inside is pale pink with soft shelves located at the chest and pelvis. The outside is white, and partially quilted with a brick pattern.

While sheltering in place, Wilschanski worked from her room using the space above her mattress to prepare for this installation. She gradually sewed the garments around her, working on it during the day and dreaming within it at night. Inspired by ancient water transferring structures from her childhood landscapes and from the intestines inside a body, the connected garments contain a yearning for a continually dynamic flow. These garments for sleep, appreciate the subtle but crucial movements that happen while the body is in stillness.

Ye’ela Wilschanki (b. Jerusalem, Israel) is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York. She has performed and exhibited at A.I.R Gallery, Arts on Site, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Spring/Break Art Fair, A4 Art Museum (China), Galeria Arsenal (Poland) Barbur Gallery (Israel) amongst others. Residency programs include MASH Dance House (Israel), Lake Studio (Germany), Aesthetics & Bias, Wroclaw (Poland). Wilschanski received her MFA from Hunter College (2019). She studied at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, while earning her BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem (2014).