Following studies at the Remscheid Academy (DE), the Pratt Institute (USA) and the Rietveld Academy (NL) during the mid-1990s, I made Amsterdam my base, and I have continued to live and work here for the last three decades.
Throughout the development of my practice, I’ve been keenly interested in how the distinct grammars and traditions of sculpture and performance can intersect and produce a dynamic artistic language. Scenographic assemblages have been a characteristic motif in my performance-installation, often activated by choreographed gestures accompanied by spoken, scripted narration. Both conceptually and aesthetically, the body has always been central in my work, and in particular, I am interested in how art can be a means to examine how bodies operate as documentary vessels — a carrier of political narratives and private biographies, as well as layers of collective heritage.
About ten years ago, I began studies in the Feldenkrais Method — a somatic practice developed by engineer Moshe Feldenkrais during the mid-20th century. The method is about developing awareness of one’s physical agency and learning how to learn: recognising physical habits (which often echo mental habits) and cultivating a curiosity towards spaces within one’s self that reveal other potentials. I’ve since become a qualified instructor, and the method has become a defining device in my artwork — a tool for research, as well as a means of interfacing between myself and audiences. Between 2017-2021, I undertook a self-directed research trajectory on optimising learning conditions and somatic learning within museum settings, in collaboration with the van Abbemuseum and the Rietveld Academy. For this research I was awarded the title Creator Doctus, and the project cultivated in the exhibition A Daily Practice (Van Abbemuseum, 2020) and One is Always a Plural (Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, 2021).
In addition to my activities as an artist and Feldenkrais instructor, I am also a weekly volunteer and chairperson at Plan C, a community hub in Amsterdam’s Diamantbuurt. I have also taught at various art academies, including the KABK (Master Artistic Research), Dutch Art Institute (Master Art Praxis), HISK (guest lecturer), and SAIC (guest lecturer), amongst others.
Yael on mentoring:
I see our conversation as taking place on a horizontal plane — an orientation that embraces mutual learning. I’m keen to learn with you about what crucially motivates your practice, what challenges you, how do you practically integrate and engage with those thresholds, and in what ways do you formulate sustainability (i.e., with respect to your physical and psychological energy, use of material resources, ethics of interpersonal and collaborative engagement, etc) in your working method. My communicational style tends to be characteristically direct, underpinned by an almost compulsive need to insist on transparency and open-heartedness.
I am enthusiastic to work with individuals who bring other knowledge systems into their practice, either alongside or instead of a traditional arts training.
Moreover, I am interested in points of references that come from outside of the established discourses with respect to art history, critical theory and cultural commentary. As a mother myself, I would be glad to support fellow artists who are similarly navigating the often bumpy terrain of family life and career. In a similar vein, I am also very curious towards practices that arise from grassroots and self-initiated efforts, and engage with community constellations.
I can communicate in the following languages: English, Dutch and Hebrew. I have a strong preference for spoken communication.