Personal Style and Self Expression:
Eyal Ben-Simon is a multidisciplinary artist noted for using a wide range of media from video art and photography through wall sculpting, to typography and digital art. However, as far as I am concerned, his artistic expression is primarily the way light is putty in his hands and his ability to utilize, shape, and sculpt it.
His photography and video art, created using techniques that involve both singularity and ingenuity, evoke a three-dimensional experience as though he molds and shapes light and shadow, eliminating the gap between light as a metaphor and the light in itself.
Eyal's body of work is usually characterized as abstract and surreal as he has no interest in presenting reality figuratively. He thoroughly examines the boundaries of any medium in which he creates whether it is as boundless and infinite as light, or more solid tangible materials. He generates "deliberate accidents" to create serendipity and goes on to deconstructs and reconstructs compositions over and over again until time and space are annihilated.
Feelings and emotions that are registered in Eyal's mind following his contact with nature, objects, and humans are reflected in his art. When shooting portraits, for example, he does not aim to capture the appearance of the subject, but rather the feelings and sensations that come through to him from the person in front of him. He seeks to convey this into his work to create a subjective experience of true contact between the viewers and the art. Active participation on the part of the audience in the form of interpretation, curious examination, perception, and sympathy serves to resonate with the reflected reality and may turn art into a porthole leading us into our inner world.
On Eyal's Journey into the World of Art
Growing up in the Noga neighborhood of Jaffa – at the time, disadvantaged, violent, and subject to many ethnic and religious conflicts – his search for an alternative reality started from an early age. The high school pedagogical tracking system forced him into the mathematics-accounting track although he felt a strong attraction to the art track. So, he ended up playing hooky and sneaking into art lessons. An invitation from Nir Nader who headed the art track, to participate in an "Artivistic" (artistic-activistic) project, opened the door to him to the prospect of a different reality accessible through art.
Eyal worked his way to artistic expression in an autodidactic manner through profound and extensive studying, attending many courses as a free listener, hands-on experiencing, reading, and through formal and academic education, which he pursued, due to having no interest in degrees and diplomas, for only as long as he felt it contributes to enhancing his knowledge and enriching his world.
His first steps, at the recommendation of Nader, were in photography. He chose Jacob Bornstein's Creative Photography School that focused on the fundamentals of light and technical work in the darkroom. He went on to complete most of the Photography & video Engineering diploma at the Kiryat Ono College of Photography and then moved on to a practical internship in the studio of Ilan Bsor while also broadening his horizons in philosophy, art, and sciences as a free listener at the Tel Aviv University. He then studied for three and a half (out of four) years, at the Ascola-Meimad College of Art Design in conjunction with the Open University.
During a year-long stay in Japan, besides going to lectures on the history of arts & crafts at the University of Tokyo, Eyal also submerged himself into Butoh Dance Theater whose strong influence is evident in his aesthetic vision and attitude towards life. He used to travel twice a week from Tokyo to Yokohama to take part in lessons taught by one of the two key founders of Butoh, the great master Kazuo Ohno, and was privileged to absorb insights and inspiration that had been material to his life ever since.