Bat-Ami Rivlin

Lives and works in New York, NY, USA

Artist statement

My practice explores utilitarian objects as ontologically functional, proposing an object’s function as the very agency of material. I repurpose surplus and found objects, home appliances, and other common products. I explore ways in which the objects perform their "practicality" in space: zip ties grip a deflated kayak, duct tape clamps down onto an LED light. By juxtaposing these objects with each other, they fulfill and nullify their use-value; pushing, demarcating, clamping, binding themselves to and away from each other. This process of doubling down on an object's functional categorization makes visible the ways in which we opt into systems of material function, often without realizing it. These objects hold practical promises– announcing a given ecology of matter before we even begin to question its effect. Thus echoing an ableist, capitalist, ever-functioning perception of both objects around us and ourselves.

Artwork