signs and symbols

Tempus Fugit at 89 Greene
Reuven Israel

January 27 - March 23, 2024

Opening Reception:
January 27, 2024
5:00-7:00pm

89 Greene at signs and symbols* is delighted to present Tempus Fugit by sculptor Reuven Israel. Curated by Dr. Kathy Battista, Israel’s project consists of one wall-based sculpture made especially for the space.

This sculpture, like several of the artist’s previous pieces, consists of movable elements that can be arranged in numerous configurations. In this instance, six triangle parts are mounted on a hexagon and slide on hidden tracks, changing the overall configuration. There are twenty-four possible variations—one for each hour of the day. Corresponding to the founding principles of signs and symbols, the artist embraces movement and duration in this sculpture. Israel also made Tempus Fugit as a challenge to himself: to conceive a work with a limited, yet significant, number of modifications that could be experienced anew on each visit to the space.

Tempus Fugit is a Latin phrase that means “time flies.” It is appropriate that the work is shown at the beginning of a new year when each of us has hope for an improved future. However, it is also significant that each new year seems to come quicker than the last as we age. Tempus fugit is a phrase used to remind us to seize each day and live life to the fullest. Israel’s sculpture can be seen as a kind of low-tech encrypted clock, in need of a person to change it every hour, exposing the contradiction in the way we experience the flow of time: on one hand how time moves slowly when we are waiting for an event, and on the other hand how it flies by when we are not paying attention.

Israel’s sculpture, typical of his practice, was made painstakingly by hand, amounting to countless hours of toil. While his sculptures can appear as machine fabricated, they are created by the artist himself, starting with simple wood that is then shaped, sanded, painted, and buffed in a laborious, solitary process. His works contain references that range from science fiction to ancient, sacred, and culturally significant architecture. His refined palette—in this case aubergine, tan, and fleshy pink—is drawn from a myriad of these references.

The artist and curator will be present at the gallery, from noon on January 27 to noon on January 28. During this time, Israel will “perform the piece,” choosing a new variation of the sculpture each hour. This process will be documented and later shown as a video.

*Please note that all 89 Greene exhibitions are on view at the gallery’s location at 249 East Houston Street; the name of the project is only in reference to Jack Smith's historic address.

reuven israel (b. 1978 Jerusalem, Israel) received his MFA and BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. He has had solo exhibitions at Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Center for Contemporary Art—Tel Aviv; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles; Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Fridman Gallery, New York; Museo Civico Floriano Bodini, Gemonio, Italy, among others. Selected group exhibitions include Objects Of Affection at Wasserman Projects, Detroit; Metamorphosis and Metaphors, a dialogue on minor aesthetics at Ark Kultur, Istanbul; Crossing Lines at Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück; The Museum Imagined at Danese Corey, New York; The Museum Presents Itself 2 at Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Domestic Ideals at Lesley Heller Workspace, New York; The Readymade Centennial at Haifa Museum of Art; Re: Visiting Rockefeller at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem; and Senses of the Mediterranean at Hangar Bicocca, Milan. Reuven has received several awards, including the Israeli Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist Award, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s Legacy Heritage Fund Prize, and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship. In April 2016, the artist completed a permanent public installation at Setter Square, Tel Aviv.