Excerpts from an interview with Yael

in "HaSadeh", the local magazine of Sdeh-Warburg, June 2022

written and translated by Ruth Talmor

Yael Segall is a multidisciplinary artist, painter and photographer. Her studio is a small room, packed with all kinds of materials, three projectors and a computer. On a table, a sheet of corrugated tin is leaning against the wall and next to it I can see marbles cemented onto metal wire mesh.

Yael explains, "Doing a project for a photography class, I scattered marbles on a rug, which reminded me of the one in the house where I grew up. I took pictures of the marbles from the angle of a little girl sitting on the rug. I didn’t do anything with these photographs until much later. Nowadays I use marbles a lot. I glue them on sculptures, or integrate them into a piece in another way. For me, marbles symbolize something really profound."

We talk about memories from art school, sources of inspiration, the process of work, doubts, difficulties, exposure, the physical conditions and more. Yael tells me about the help she gets from her family, especially her partner, Gideon. She says, "It is a lot of fun to have imagination and I am very lucky to be able to create art today."

Yael studied various domains of art at Kalisher Art College and at Zilum Ba'am Photography School, but long before she started studying, she had been painting a lot. Nowadays she is studying with a personal tutor "that helps me find my inner voice, understand what I am looking for and exploring."

Yael talks about her sources of inspiration. Among other things, she says, "I like to study about photography, photographers, painters; the history of art, philosophy, worldviews. At the beginning I was intrigued by Plato, then I was drawn to the rabbit hole. I always work in the dark. I have somber works with tunnels and burrows. There is an emotional meaning in it for me: darkness, groping in the dark. I am also interested in the topic of the camera and the film. I work a lot on reflections. They mean a lot to me. It is not just a technical matter.

I have been exploring the myth of Medusa. She represents the worst injustice: not only was she raped, but she was also punished. This is absurd. The center of my work is dealing with femininity. It is personal, but also collective and universal.

I dealt with my original family a lot. Looking at my life begins at childhood. I don’t have a lot of photos from that time, so I use images. For instance, marbles are my image of childhood."

Another source for Yael's art is the domain of the soul: meditations, communicating with spirits, and dreams. "I believe that the body disintegrates, but something remains. Is it the soul? I came into this universe with a script which I had written. This is important because doing my art I create a certain reality which is based on the past. This is the material. I am the director, script writer and actress.

What I do is not just technical. Sometimes my hand leads the way, the materials arrive. I am not sure where from. Sometimes I look at what I have done and wonder: It's not me. Who has done it? How? When I feel blocked, I close my eyes and the ideas come. When my eyes are closed, I can visualize my ideas. This enhances my creativity.

Everyday life is a challenge for me. I am usually immersed in thought, not concentrating, 'not on the ground', searching for something. I prefer meditating, dreaming, communicating with spirits. In art, I love this state. I create my own world. Through communicating with spirits, I reached a lot of insights. 

My art is not 'pretty'. I create because this is what I do. Authenticity is important to me. It is for myself, not for the viewers. My art is not on the wall of anybody's living room. Still, every artist needs feedback. I have always felt that nobody understood me or my art. When someone stays a moment next to my work, when people ask about it, I am excited. Someone once said to me, 'You create art, this is wonderful!'. Then I suddenly realized that creating art is a gift, that I have been blessed. I got recognition as being able to create art. For me it is a lot. It made me feel able to expose a lot more than before.

Sometimes it seems as if I don’t really know what it is that I am conveying in my work. The truth is that I do know but I cover it up. I keep asking myself what and where I dare expose. In my paintings I also used layers over layers, exposing and concealing. Today I allow myself to be more confident about my art."

Yael tells me about the work process, " I don’t believe in artistic inspiration. I don’t wait for it to appear. I believe in work. When I create, it is a whole complex of profound conceptual, material and emotional exploration. I give it a lot of thought, draw sketches and examine ideas. What drives me is the wish to construct an image in which a different reality is created when I photograph it.

I create the space by piling up textiles, objects which I sculpt and various other materials. I combine layered media, like quick intuitive drawing, photos I have and projections from different sources. I work hard, physically, to construct, glue, attach in a specific angle, add more material, apply boards with textures, and create a reality. On the pile I project an image and then take pictures of the whole thing from different angles. In the end there is only a photo. Technically, there are lots of problems and great frustration. Sometimes the whole pile collapses. But I don’t give up. I go on. This channel has opened up for me and it can't be blocked.

I feel that a piece must express emotion. This comes at a cost. While working I get frustrated. Now I know that every artist, even the greatest, must cope with dilemmas. Nowadays, art is my way of life. It makes me go through a process. It is a tool, which enables me to dare – more than ever - be who I am.

Many complicated themes are expressed in my works. While working I often get angry and yell out loud, but I am a very happy woman. I live life intensively and happily. It might sound contradicting but it isn’t.

I took part in small exhibitions here and there. Among other places, my work was exhibited at the Drom HaSharon Regional Council and at Al HaAgam Art Gallery in Ra'anana. My first solo exhibition was at the Municipal Art Gallery of Givatayim, not very long ago. As mentioned before, my art is not 'pretty'. I wish to present it at galleries which show processes, expression and contents, ones which hold artistic dialogues.

I am actually very shy. I never speak of my art. I say something and immediately afterwards cover it up. Compared to myself, I spoke so much in this interview…"