Magnum Opus is a collaborative project with Daniel Rubinstein.

The Showroom, London (1994)

68elf, Cologne (1996)

Beit Haomanim, Jerusalem (1998)

Magnum Opus I – The Showroom, London (1994), curated by Tony White 

Looking at the impossible alchemical search for purity, each object or activity reflected the alchemical stages of ego, unity, levitation, purification, celibate machine and melting. For example, Ashery sent letters to gallery visitors translated from Hebrew to English to demonstrate that the act of translation is never pure.

Magnum Opus II – 68elf, Cologne (1996)

Ashery and Rubinstein camped in the gallery for the duration of the show. One of the exhibits included data from the office of Internal Affairs in Israel – obtained through family connections – indicating the level of emigration out of Israel since 1986. Each year the number of those who left was represented by a box of matches, showing the fluctuating wave of immigration relating to economical and political events. In a smoky basement, large scale photocopies of unused photographs given by Nati Shochat from the Israeli photographic news agency Flash90 were displayed.

Magnum Opus III – Beit Haomanim, Jerusalem (1998)

This installation included all of the furniture from Ashery’s bedroom in her parent’s flat in Jerusalem as it was left when she emigrated to England in the late 1980s. Contemporary magazines from England were put over the bed to express the gap that the departure had caused. Another space was titled ‘Moderates physical pressure’, an Israeli term used to describe treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The space included a medicine cabinet full of various painkillers, photographic prints of club scenes obscured by ropes, and a stool with small nails hammered into it.

Links/Downloads:

Review: Magnum Opus III – Ha’ir (July 1998) (Text in Hebrew)