Aviv Benn

I laugh at death

On my first trip to New York, when I was 9, my parents took me to the Keith Haring retrospective at the Whitney Museum. I remember standing in front of an unfinished work of the painter I loved, and crying. The painting was unfinished due to Haring’s premature death of AIDS. This was my first encounter with the abstract idea of “death.” It struck a chord and formed the kind of artist I am today.
During my first year at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, I came across an anatomy book at the library. I was immediately intrigued by the body parts, which tell the tale of who we are and what we are made of. I took the book everywhere and sketched the images over and over. The body, which seemed to be this perfect, well-attuned entity, in fact consisted of individual parts that could be separated, each having metaphorically independent existence and life of its own.
Both experiences are significant to my work today — visual interpretations of the primal fear of death. I paint images of body parts and deformed characters, symbolizing death and decay. Into this dark subject matter, I inject humor, graphic and cartoon-like gestures, ironic expressions and absurd combinations. I'm replacing the tears of fear with laughter, as a way for the viewer and myself to deal with our inevitable decay and demise.

Aviv Benn