Artifical, 2019, Naama Agassi

Photo: Hadar Saifan

What

Plaster, pigment

Who

Naama Agassi, b. 1983

Why

Naama Agassi developed a unique process to produce a series of objects imitating natural stones. Inspired by a 17th-century Italian technique (scagliola), which sought to perfectly imitate costly marbled stones for architectural use, Agassi, by contrast, chose to underscore the characteristics of the work process, and to showcase the artificiality of the products.

Inventing a new materiality, she produces functional objects made of “impossible stones.”

“In this series I chose, by contrast, to underscore the characteristics of the work process, rather than of nature, and to showcase the artificiality of the products. I follow the traditional method, while exploiting the freedom it provides to produce functional objects made of impossible stones, which cannot exist in nature. In this way the series adapts an ancient technique to the present age, in which both the natural and the artificial are questioned.”

Where

On display at the Rothschild Gallery, Tel Aviv Biennale of Crafts & Design, MUZA – Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv.