Naama Tsabar at Shulamit Nazarian

On view: January 10–February 29, 2020

At Shulamit Nazarian Gallery in Hollywood, large monochrome felt wall works are not as they seem. They appear to be austere, minimal color field works, but they are in fact instruments embedded with mics and attached to amplifiers, awaiting musicians or curious gallery-goers to activate them. Inversion #1 take this one further, embedding one of Tsabar’s custom instruments (culled from guitar, banjo, harp, and violin parts) directly into the gallery wall. A set of tuning pegs protrudes from the wall next to two cavities that invite brave participants to blindly feel around for strings to strum (like Audry Hepburn in Roman Holiday tentatively sticking her hand into the Mouth of Truth). This week, Tsabar and her five collaborators are holding a closed workshop in the gallery, together experimenting and uncovering the potential of her staged instruments, which will culminate in a set of performances in the gallery where the six will activate the sculpture-cum-instruments. Space is limited, so RSVP is necessary, or you can check out the gallery another time, and play the musical sculptures for yourself.