Naama Tsabar, (Opus 1)

“The act of smashing the electric guitar is a thing—a big, climactic, performative, macho thing. We have seen it over and over again, this act of male anarchy and destruction. Its occurrence might have arguably changed rock’n’roll forever. . . Appropriating this iconic and overtly macho trope, Tsabar breaks guitars, but not for the public—and the act is not the climax but rather the process, the beginning of the creation. The death of the object becomes the starting point of the new project.”—Zoe Lukov

For more than a decade, installation and performance artist Naama Tsabar has been imploying everyday materials to form experiential and conceptually charged works of art that explore questions of power, sensuality, and memory. Through the appropriation and subversion of objects and iconic gestures from the realms of art and music—and their associations with masculinity, patriarchy, virility, and power—Tsabar upends the implicit gender roles and coded behaviors established by mainstream history and society. Following her solo exhibitions Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 2) at Faena Art Center in Buenos Aires, Transitions #4 at Kunsthaus Baselland in Muttenz/Basel, and Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 3) at CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, this book not only documents these exhibitions but it provides, for the first time, a deep reading and interpretation of her multifaceted practice, which encompasses sculpture, photography, sound, and performance.