Who is who? Who is playing and why? What is the aim of the game? Where are you in the game? In one of the objects in the exhibition Prey for me we see light yellow wooden dice in backgammon boards that are part of a metal construction that is reminiscent of a paravent. But these boards are made of wood, covered with a layer of plaster, without colour, and the dice have no dots. Without colour, the game is stripped of the signs that refer to the identity of the players. As a result, the game has become non-sensical and is presented purely as a bare mechanism. The only dice with dots is in the mouth of a snake that is greedily craving sweets and longing to turn the game to its own advantage.
In her first solo presentation at the gallery, Michal Helfman presents a mix of objects, drawings and a video work. The elements earth, water, air and fire are brought to the fore in various guises in images that revolve around complexity and chance. The title of the exhibition is ambiguous and plays with the sound and meaning of the English words pray, and prey. But for whom should one pray? Is it the predator of the prey?
The snake is the political figure in the arena of the game, but there is also another force present, one that is about hope and faith, an energy that gathers and rises into the burning flame of a candle. The flame quivers in the wind generated by a fan: two forces that are in a fragile balance with each other. The viewer who enters the installation influences the subtle dialogue between wind and flame and thus becomes part of the narrative.
In Prey for me a layered network of images and structures full of dualities unfolds: between the poetic and the political, between body and mind, between myth and technology, between history and current affairs. Burnt materials, perforated paper, winding cables and black satin ribbons create a space full of tension. Through interconnected interventions, a delicate ecosystem of balance and interdependence emerges. The installation as a whole can be read as an open reflection on a stage of disintegration and vulnerability, but also as a starting point on the path towards connection and the poetic.
Michal Helfman is an internationally renowned artist with a multidisciplinary, research-based practice, working in a variety of media from video, drawing, performance, to sculpture and architecture.