Sauna

Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design

(2017)

Sauna is a fully functioning steam room whose inside is covered with 500 handpainted kiln-fired tiles made with different glazing techniques. The work draws from ancient traditions of purification, hinting at nudity, the body, cleanliness, healing, gym and gay culture, and abject bodily actions like sweating. Within the context of the BFA final show, it created a kind of heterotopia, an alienated space characterized by an extreme temperature and humidity level, very different from its surrounding environment, that offered an intense physical and visual experience.