I Went Inside
A series of four large-scale paintings displayed in the exhibition “Human. Nature”, curated by Sarah Peguine and Michal Freedman. These paintings were presented alongside the video work "On the Bridge". In the video, Chefetz himself appears dressed in blue work clothes, embodying the figure of the kibbutz worker, wandering like a vagabond at the foot of brutalist public buildings around Tel Aviv. He carries cardboard boards on his back, seeking to build himself a temporary shelter.
“I Went Inside” series is painted on a cardboard substrate, the exact same boards shown in the video. The paintings depict what appear to be walls with shadows of objects cast on them, objects familiar from domestic surroundings. In the center of the walls are windows overlooking views of wild nature.
These paintings complete the narrative in the video, presenting a point of view from the inside looking out, establishing the presence of a home that is absent in the video. However, it is difficult to define this as the image of one home from which the gaze extends outward. The variety of landscapes in the paintings and the differences between them suggest an observation of the whole world as a home. Chefetz aims to convey the idea that qualities such as stability, security, and tranquility are not necessarily dependent on one specific place or physical structure.
Through the windows of the paintings, skies filled with clouds in warm hues are reflected. The movement that seems to exist in the sky mirrors an experience of awakening. The natural landscapes, stretching under the shades of the clouds, serve as an inverted image of the urban environment seen in the video and express the direction Chefetz wishes to move toward. Not necessarily as a concrete goal of living in nature, but as the assimilation of the values that the earth symbolizes. The act of framing the landscapes within the paintings seeks to remind us that this is a metaphor, an aspiration. Thus, alongside the bridge in the video, which signifies a transition between dimensions of consciousness, the paintings express the desire to move toward synchronization, refinement, and unity.
