Alona Weiss

My practice reflects the process of rendering history into mythology by tracking strategies of manipulation manifested through authoritative power mechanisms. Incorporating time based media, printmaking and sculpture, along with an ongoing exploration of materializing text into form, I am interested in the implemented legacy of remembrance, commemoration and nationhood in relation to historical narratives. My work provokes scenarios that suggest debatable interactions, as a way to de-construct the politics of collective memories. The gray areas of geographic dislocation from a cultural narrative of conflict, informs my studio practice. By tracing the infrastructures of that cultural narrative, I inspire questions of the existing order.

Growing up in Israel, I am a part of a generation who was born into a relatively safe environment in relation to the echo of my parents and grand parents generational struggles, entwined with genocide and war. I am approaching my work as a platform that enables me to negotiate the infrastructures of a pre-conditioned identity embodied within a collective generational voice.

Through examining the conditions of my upbringing, I can unfold the existential complexities of a nationally constructed We that I am inevitably a part of.

Alona Weiss was born in Ramat Gan, Israel. She is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2014 she received her MFA from Parsons – The New School for Design in New York, and in 2006 she received her B.DES from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. For the past years her work was exhibited and screened internationally at The Beijing Film Academy in China, 25 East Gallery in New York, Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, Israel Festival in Jerusalem, PechaKucha Nights in Tel Aviv, and HaZira Performance Art Arena in Jerusalem, among others. She is the recipient of scholarships and awards such as: The Hearst scholarship, The Sharet fund – AICF, The Oscar Collin Fellowship, Parsons Graduate Award, Graduate Dean’s Scholarship, and The New School Merit Scholarships.

www.alonaweiss.com