Masha Rubin

Masha Rubin
Portfolio
mashafondamisky@gmail.com / + 972 549430101
1973 Born in St Petersburg, Russia
Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel
Education
2002-2004 Alma Hebrew College, Tel Aviv, Israel
1996-2000 Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, Israel
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2002 Group Exhibition, Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011 3 for 10, The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel /
Curator Tal Ben Zvi
2002 Masha Rubin, Photosynthesis Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Group Exhibition, Plonit Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2001 Group Exhibition, Co-Art Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
2000 Graduation Exhibition, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Israel
1999 Group Exhibition, Kosovo Foundation, Tel Aviv, Israel
1992 Group Exhibition, Journalist’s House, St. Petersburg, Russia
Selected Group Exhibition
Group Exhibition, Marble Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
2012 The 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial Preview, Ekaterinburg, Russia
Black Box Project, Jerusalem, Israel
Fresh Paint, Contemporary Art Fair, Tel Aviv, Israel
2010 Golden Ghetto, AFA Gallery Santiago, Chile / Curator Yael Rosenblud
Grobman, Kishon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Projects
2011 Venus Effect, Loushy Art & Projects, Tel Aviv, Israel
2009 Knitting Fate, Loushy Art & Projects, Tel Aviv, Israel
New additions to the collection, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Young Art, Ramat Gan Museum, Ramat Gan, Israel
2008 Jaffa’s Art, The Jaffa Museum, Jaffa, Israel
Awards
Snapshot, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Ramle, Israel
2010 Israeli Absorption Ministry Prize, The Culture Award for an Israeli
Goyim, New Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
Immigrant Artist
2004 Photo Bridge, The Israeli Museum of Photography, Tel Hay, Israel
Photo Bridge, The Moscow Museum of Photography, Moscow, Russia
Collections
Photo Bridge, Woter Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Cosmopolite, Abraham Baron Art Gallery, Ben Gurion University,
Igal Ahouvi Collection
Beer Sheva, Israel
Private Collections
A Personal Diary
Untitled, 2010, colour print, 40x28 cm
Untitled, 1997, colour print, 28x40 cm
Untitled, 1999, colour print, 28x40 cm
Untitled, 2000, colour print, 60x48 cm
Untitled, 1997, colour print, 40x28 cm
Untitled, 1996, colour print, 50x38 cm
Untitled, 1999, colour print, 40x28 cm
Untitled, 2003, colour print, 40x28 cm
Untitled, 1996, colour print, 40x28 cm
Untitled, 2005, colour print, 60x60 cm
Untitled, 1999, colour print, 40x28 cm
Untitled, 2011, colour print, 60x60 cm
Untitled, 2007, colour print, 60x48 cm
Untitled, 2009, colour print, 60x60 cm
Untitled, 1997, colour print, 48x60 cm
Untitled, 2009, colour print, 60x60 cm
Untitled, 2006, colour print, 60x60 cm
Untitled, 2008, colour print, 60x48 cm
Feminine History
Knitting Fate, 2009, c-print, 120x150 cm
Venus Effect, 2011, archival pigment print on paper, 136x176 cm
Olympia, 2012, Archival pigment print on paper, 46x70 cm
Untitled, 2012, c-print, 70x46 cm
Untitled, 2012, c-print, 60x60 cm
Untitled, 2012, c-print, 60x60 cm
Burqa
Untitled, 2012, c-print, 10x15 cm
Untitled, 2012, c-print, 18x13 cm
Untitled, 2012, c-print, 18x13 cm
Untitled, 2012, c-print, 18x13 cm
‫‏‬Artist Statement
‫‏‬I was born in St. Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia. Since childhood, I
a new territorial space. I call this archive the ‘internal archive’. It contains
was fascinated by the history of classical art and my connection to it became
indoor photos: home parties, kitchen scenes, bedrooms and rented apartments.
an integral part of my work. The late eighties, when I was a teenager, became
There are hardly any outdoor photos. I tried to stay loyal to a carefree space,
a time of revolutionary changes in Russia. I had the impression that a wild
‘cutting out’ the surrounding geographic space. As the project evolved, I felt
animal was awakened from a long long sleep, and the world was full of energy
a need ‘to let the world in’, and from that stage on the project became more
and excitement. In this atmosphere of change, I took up photography and soon
chronological, an unusual ‘family album’, which I go on with up until today.
became a part of the art community of St. Petersburg, which sprang out of The New
Academy of Fine Arts. First founded by Timur Novikov in 1989, it later became the
This project, which has been in process for 17 years, is the platform for my next
base of contemporary art in Russia.
project, which turns from the inner world to world’s history and mythology. I
began to study at Alma, an adult education institution for Hebrew Culture. I
In the early 90’s I immigrated to Israel and since then I live and work in Tel
studied Jewish philosophy, history and culture. My study of the Jewish religion
Aviv. The transition influenced me and my art on many different levels, as
and philosophy awakened my interest in mysticism, legends and myths.
reflected in my projects through the years. My new reality was very different
from my past life. I was alone, I didn’t understand the language, and the local
In my new project, a staged photo series called ‘Feminine History’, I try
landscape seemed completely flat, like a postcard or a photo.
to connect my love of classical art, mysticism and myth. It requires a
comprehensive study of paintings by the old masters, and is inspired by legends
After a year, I was accepted to the photography department of the Bezalel
and myths along with contemporary reality. With the privilege of art - the
Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem. My first big project was a documentary
freedom of imagination that is not subjected to the immediate test of truth – I
photo series called ‘A Personal Diary’. I photographed obsessively, trying to
try to create a poetic vision of actuality, or perhaps a new mythology. For me, a
fill the emptiness of leaving the familiar and plunging into a new reality. I
myth is a piece of history, but in contrast to the history we study in school, it
find the best description for this process in a sentence from the constitutive
is filled with people’s feelings and emotions. The myth is a falsehood rich with
book by Suzan Sontag ‘On Photography’: “The most obsessive photographs at home
meaning and questions.
and in travel, apparently, are those who have taken away the past”.
I am especially interested in the difference between the representation of
All of the photographs in these series feature a group of young friends who
women in history, mythology and religion. Through it I try to understand
immigrated to Israel and worked in theater, music, cinema and the fine arts. This
processes that form and transform the modern woman’s life; asking questions
group appears repeatedly in my works in different situations, creating a real
about aging, trans-generational relationships, sexuality and the role of woman
and at the same time utopian community. This body of work suggests to the viewer
in today’s world.
All the works in this project are built in four steps, borrowed from the Jewish
I contacted and interviewed different women on the streets, in small shops
mystical tradition. The famous Talmudic story, the ‘Aggadah’ (Legend), teaches
four possible ways of reading a text: the first one is ‘Pshat’ (‫)פ ָׁשט‬,
ְּ which means
and on the internet. After much urging and persuasion, I collected enough
‘plain’ or ‘simple’, referring to the literal meaning of the text. The second is
unhappy with the results of the feminist struggle. They even tried to persuade
‘Remez’ (‫)ר ֶמז‬,
ֶ a ‘hint’, or an allegoric meaning beyond the literal sense. The third
me to become a Muslim. “The personal is political”, as the famous feminist
is ‘Drash’ (‫)ד ַרׁש‬
ּ ְ - from the Hebrew word darash, meaning ‘inquire’, which refers to
slogan declares - it bears special relevance in the current state of Muslim
the comparative meaning, as shown through similar occurrences. And the last one
women. The Islamic religion offers a patriarchal society in which the role
is ‘Sod’ (‫)סֹוד‬, which means ‘secret’, given through inspiration or revelation. I use
of mother and housewife is respected. This project is in an initial stage of
this in the construction of my works, where every picture has its own text and
research and documentation.
information and stories, which led me to the realization that these women were
underlying meanings.
All my projects are long-term, based on researches and studies and they flow
In my work ‘The Knitting Fate’, which was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last
smoothly one from the other, feeding each other and developing simultaneously.
Supper’, the myth of the male world, swathed in drama, hostility and strife, is
They grow out of my biography and deal with questions of constructing
metamorphosed into an idyllic scene where thirteen women knit protection, life
identities as a reconstruction of history and myths. I see myself as a kind of
and love. The number 13 in Gematria (Jewish numerology) translates in Hebrew to the
‘anthropologist-artist’ - I study social groups and new social structures based
word ‘ahava’ (love). I wish to transform the story of betrayal into a story of love.
on new multicultural neoplasms.
My third ongoing project deals with intermixed marriages in Israel, focusing on
Russian women who have converted to Islam. I live in Jaffa, a city with a mixed
population of Arabs and Jews. In Israel, both religions - Judaism and Islam - are
becoming more politicized and radicalized.
When I first met Russian women who wore burqa, I was intrigued, so I began a new
investigation. I discovered that mixed marriages that lead to conversion are
more common in Israel than I thought. My research question was: why do women who
grew up in an atheistic country, who received a European education and hold a
feministic perspective, decide to a wear a burqa? And why do they become Muslims
in a professedly Jewish state?