Israeli artist Uri Katzenstein-best known for his outlandish use of atypical artistic materials-spoke yesterday at the Center for Documentary Studies. He allocated the majority of his lecture to a discussion of his artistic style.
"I most commonly use a lot of organic material," said Katzenstein. "Urine, pus and blood are common. I use meats, such as salami, as small conceptual containers because they create a dichotomy by penetrating the body both sexually and as food."
His early works use mainly building materials-fire extinguishers, mailboxes, carving boards-and self-created machines to create a "sound environment."
"When I first started, I wanted to be like a one-man sex machine band," he said. "I liked to play with rhythms and build with synthesizers."
In more recent years, he has transcended from installation to performance art. "The only good advice I got in art school was to put myself in my work," he said. "Today, my work centers around my body and tries to feed on different... ways of producing, enhancing and creating a groupspeak."
One of Katzenstein's favorite pieces depicts Lika, the Russian dog sent into space. Protesting animal cruelty, he uses vials of urine, dumbbells and a hound's profile to send his message. "Animals are friendly creatures," he said. "I express the humanization of animal through the point of view of the individual."
Some of Katzenstein's artistic tools are difficult to store and present. "I have one piece where I use a dead shark with his head cut off. I have to keep it in my own freezer and then take it out right before it is time to show," he said.
This has greatly displeased at least one art collector: "I got a call from a collector who was really mad one time. One of the vials in the blood pieces had burst all over his white sofa. I just made him another one, but he was angry."
Katzenstein's political motives and beliefs have driven much of his work. In protest of fascism, he constructed a chair in the shape of a swastika.
"A person in this chair could be seen as a fascist as himself, but there is another side that creates a dichotomy," he said. "To show how we must fight back, I often stand in the chair to show a defeat."
This strong political aspect of his art is not always accepted by Israelis. Once, when the Israeli prime minister came to a show in the Israel Museum of Art, his bodyguards and the museum curator stood in front of the chair to keep him from seeing it.
Katzenstein's most recent work, "The Family of Brothers," can be seen at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life. He is the first recipient of the Evans Israel Academic and Cultural Residency Fellows Program, a foundation aimed at increasing the exchange of arts and letters between Duke and Israel.
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