Straight Down

The exhibition Straight Down invites the viewer to discover Jerusalem's hidden infrastructure, the metabolic system pulsating beneath layers of limestone and dolomite. The Book of Chronicles describes a bold engineering operation attributed to King Hezekiah, who "stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them downward" (2 Chronicles 32:30). Hezekiah's project to subjugate topography is the conceptual point of departure of this exhibition, where pipes and excavation are not perceived merely as passive functional elements, but as an active neural network maintaining an ongoing dialogue between acceptance and prevention. This exhibition seeks to examine the tension between the feminine domain - the hidden space, the recipient, the enabling tunnel - and the masculine pump capable of overcoming gravity and raising to the surface, mapping the journey from dark depths to light. Yanai Kellner deconstructs the infrastructural system into units of action and longing. Hadar Amit's work uses perishable organic material - dozens of tree trunks made of unfired clay positioned in acidic liquid, creating a process of absorption leading to decay and decomposition. Orit Raf presents a video-animation work in which she suspends time. A giant metal bell sways in the murky depths of the sea, moving and ringing in defiance of the laws of physics. Ora Brill explores the geology of soul and matter in the work From the Depths – a large-scale oil painting where thick layers of paint create topography and physical depth, simulating entry into the earth's belly.