Yair Oelbaum
Untitled (Ice fisher)
2024
c-print from trimmed sheet film in artist's frame
30 7/8 x 26 3/4 x 3/8 in; 78.4 x 67.7 x 1 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Buchholz
This work is from “Teiku,” the first solo exhibition of Yair Oelbaum (b. 1988, New York), who has been developing an artistic practice since 2002 while working as a psychotherapist. Oelbaum’s still life photographs of inscrutable subjects are taken with a Polaroid camera typically used in dental medicine or crime scene documentation.
The abstract (leaning) photos depict scavenged trash, revered objects, constructed components and items from the natural world arranged and photographed as still lifes, ephemeral sculptures whose dull, reverberating beauty can exist only on this plane and in these configurations. They are also portraits, aiming to capture the rich spirit of the depicted models and elements.
None of the photos included in this exhibition have been taken with the film intended for the camera. The Polaroids reproduced here have been re-loaded into recycled compatible cartridges. The exhibition also contains a variety of images taken with negative film cut down or folded/wrapped to fit inside recycled Polaroid Spectra cartridges. These methods serve to prolong the life of the obsolete device.
The ethereal body glimmers as ash discharged from a cherry to disperse into atmosphere.
– Press release, Yair Oelbaum, “Teiku” at Galerie Buchholz, New York
Yair Oelbaum: The title of the show, Teiku, translates to “let it stand.” It’s an expression that indicates a stalemate in the Talmud. Studying the Talmud, you want to know what the answer to six pages of debate is, but when Teiku appears, there is actually no end. There has always been something exciting about this uncertainty because I felt like it reflected a lot of the ambivalence in my own life.
Max Levin: So letting it stand retains a sort of vitality and ambiguity, whereas over-understanding buries it.
YO: Yes, understanding suffocates it. Scooping dirt over the corpse. And again, the camera and Talmudic wrangling are both things handed down to me by my father. So it felt significant to connect my art and the way that I see my family’s religion. It felt intuitive to take my father’s camera and Talmudic concepts that he holds sacred and assemble them into an idea for an exhibition.
Oelbaum is also known for his collaborative work with his partner, Kai Althoff, such as the play “There we will be buried” (2010), the film Forerunner (2016), and photography for Althoff’s musical output.
Provenance
Galerie Buchholz, New York
Exhibitions
“Teiku,” Galerie Buchholz, New York, January 23 – March 1, 2025
See also
Yair Oelbaum and Kai Althoff, Lecture at ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, April 4, 2017