Suspension (Flows #1), 2023
gaffer tape, audio cable and connectors, aluminum, CA glue, archival PVA glue.
58 ¼ x 37 ⅞ x ¾”
Gaffering: Patrick Busby, Galit Silver, Naama Tsabar.
photo: Elisheva Gavra

  • From the ongoing Gaffer series, instrument cables travel through fields made from layering numerous strips of tape, the same material used to mask and stabilize cables in performance spaces. The monochromatic field of tape holds the cables suspended in different visual compositions as they flow in and out of the rectangular frame. In these works, Tsabar continues her interest in gaffer tape as a hidden utilitarian material within a performative order—a material she first used in her works Twilight (Gaffer Wall), 2006 and Encore, 2007. This series, which both critiques and pays homage to the aesthetics of Minimalism, moves the tape from the unseen location of the stage floor to its scrutable position on the gallery wall. Tsabar specifically calls attention to the hidden labor associated with the material through the meticulous layering of the tape, creating a significant thickness and a subtle textural rhythm of lines on its surface. She further calls attention to the labor involved in their creation by naming the people who contributed to the act of “gaffering” in the credit lines of the work. These artworks refuse to be confined to a single category, borrowing from elements of painting, drawing, and sculpture. They hinge the functional and the visual; while the cable running through the work can be read as a gestural mark, and the tape itself a color field, the works never lose their potential to actively transmit sound

Exhibition view, Layers and Formations, 2023
Dvir Gallery Paris
photo: Aurélien Mole

Suspension (Harness #1), 2023
detail view

Suspension (Turns #1), 2023
gaffer tape, audio cable and connectors, aluminum, CA glue, archival PVA glue.
85 ⅜ x 34 x ¾”

Suspension (Intimacy #2), 2023
gaffer tape, audio cable and connectors, aluminum, CA glue, archival PVA glue.
78 ⅜ x 37 ½ x ¾”
Gaffering: Galit Silver, Naama Tsabar

Suspension (Meetings #1), 2023
detail view

Suspension (Meetings #2), 2023
gaffer tape, audio cable and connectors, aluminum, CA glue, archival PVA glue.
80 ⅜ x 37 ¾ x ¾”
Gaffering: Patrick Busby, Galit Silver, Naama Tsabar

Suspension (Arches #1), 2023
gaffer tape, audio cable and connectors, aluminum, CA glue, archival PVA glue.
48 x 33 1/4 x 3/4”
Gaffering: Patrick Busby, Naama Tsabar.

Suspension (Circle #1), 2023
gaffer tape, audio cable and connectors, aluminum, CA glue, archival PVA glue.
26 ¾ x 28 x ¾”
Gaffering: Galit Silver, Naama Tsabar.

Suspension (Bow #1), 2023
gaffer tape, audio cable and connectors, aluminum, CA glue, archival PVA glue.
86 ⅝ x 26 ¼ x ¾”
Gaffering: Patrick Busby, Galit Silver, Naama Tsabar

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New Yorker collages