Ezra Benus
SUN /
MOON
שמש
/ לבנה
2020, acrylic on canvas, seven canvases each 18×24 in. Written poem.
WHEN THE SUN RISES
AND YOU FEEL STUCK
WHEN THE SUN SETS
AND YOU FEEL RELEASE
WHEN THE MOON SHINES
AND YOU FEEL THROBBING
WHEN THE MOON FADES
AND YOU TOO FADE
Describing this work, Benus writes:
“This work is steeped in rituals of living with chronic illness, and in the implications of a medicalized embodiment and personal identification and social reality of disability. My paintings use a system of color derived from the colors of the medication I interact with on a daily basis, ongoing over many years, a ritual for every day for all of time. […]
A rumination on the (arbitrary) marking of time, a container to hold the ways we move through the world. The number of canvases correlates to one condition of time, a 7 day week that is usually understood in relation to a 5 day work week with 2 days for a weekend.
But 7 days can hold much more and much less, depending on the lens in which one considers a week’s time. Without the disability sense of understanding who can and cannot be “fit” for work in a 5 day work week, this work is also harkening to cosmic time, to the lunar and solar as the unconditional markers of days, and weeks. The ritual of waking up, going to sleep, rising and falling, can be understood as universal, and to the tension of being disabled/sick in a capitalist society that sees the notion of time as it equates to labor and productivity, pushing disabled people to the margins in a world that doesn’t understand our bodies/minds/spirits as valuable if not for capacity to be “productive”. Find yourself in the seams, in the tension, in the rising and falling of these works.”
Written Image Description:
Seven canvases are hung directly next to each other, forming one large horizon line of paintings. Each has one main background color, from left to right: pink, blue, orange, yellow, sage green, maroon, and grey. The palette of the background colors mixed and used throughout the canvases create colorful compositions with a variety of triangles painted on them, giving an impression that they are floating and crashing all over, spilling onto the edges of the neighboring canvases.
This work was originally installed as part of the RITUAL show at the Manhattan JCC [opens in new tab] curated by Ezra Benus and opened in spring 2020, in serendipitous confluence with the theme of this exhibition, which published a call for art related to #CripRitual around the same time.
Written Image Description:
Gallery view of artwork by Ezra Benus. Seven canvases are hung directly next to each other, forming one large horizon line of paintings. Each has one main background color, from left to right: pink, blue, orange, yellow, sage green, maroon, and grey. The palette of the background colors mixed and used throughout the canvases create colorful compositions with a variety of triangles painted on them, giving an impression that they are floating and crashing all over, spilling onto the edges of the neighbouring canvases.
Written Image Description:
A bright pink canvas hung on a white wall. There are three blue triangles painted on the left most side.
Written Image Description:
A bright yellow canvas hung on a white wall. There is a Burgundy triangle on the upper left side of the canvas. On the lower right side of the canvas there is a upside down pyramid coloured blue and yellow.
Ezra Benus’ Instagram: @ezrabenus
Ezra Benus’ Website: www.ezrabenus.com
#CripRitual 