Grant Recipients Grants to Artists Performance Art/Theater 2008

Tamy Ben-Tor

A portrait of Tamy Ben Tor with short blonde hair, wearing a pink polo shirt and standing in front of a bright blue background. She looks upwards and to the right, with her mouth held open, suggesting speech.
  • 2008 Grants to Artists
  • Performance Art/Theater
  • Video and Performance Artist
  • Born Jerusalem, Israel, 1975
  • Lives in Brooklyn, NY
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  • Additional Information
  • zachfeuer.com/artists/tamy-ben-tor

I am very grateful to have had the freedom to work solely on my new work and not worry about other income this year. It allowed me to dive deep into the creative process, which is a big privilege.

- Tamy Ben-Tor, December 25, 2008

Artist Statement

My consciousness is a sponge absorbing all of contemporary filth.

The artistic process for me, in the form of a performance, is to solidify this

sponge into a hard stamp tool and press it back onto the audience's

consciousness for the duration of the performance.

At the end, I hope they come out of it stained, impressed, as I am, by the

ailments of this time which we live in.

- December 2014

Biography

Tamy Ben-Tor is a video and performance artist whose works feature her playing various characters that she invents. She often utilizes simple costume items or other devices to create these tragicomic personae. Humor is an important element of her work, and she uses it to investigate issues of identity, cultural phenomena, politics, and social systems.

Prior to receiving a 2008 Grants to Artists award, Ben-Tor has performed and exhibited solo work at the PIF 2000 Festival, Zagreb, Croatia (2001); the LUTKE festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2001); The International Puppet Festival, Charleville-Mézières, France (2001); Chashama Theatre, New York (2002); Kansas City Art Institute (2006); and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2007). She presented Exotica, the Rat, and the Liberal as part of PERFORMA 05 (2005) and she debuted Judensau at PERFORMA 07 (2007). Her work has been included at group exhibitions and screenings at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2003); Jewish Film Festival, Berlin (2003); Vienna Jewish Film Week (2004); and MoMA PS1(2005).

With the support of her 2008 Grants to Artists award, Ben-Tor bought new video editing equipment and traveled to produce her film Polam (2009) that she presented in Disembodied Archetypes (2010), a two-person exhibition at Zach Feuer Gallery.

Ben-Tor has since staged performances and shown work in solo exhibitions at The Kitchen (2008), Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (2009), Salon 94 (2010), Zach Feuer Gallery (2012), and The Hague (2014), in addition to many venues in Israel. Her work has been included in group shows at Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art (2008); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2009); Israel Film Archive, Jerusalem (2009); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2010); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2010); Young Projects, Los Angeles (2010); REDCAT, Los Angeles (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany (2011); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel (2013); and the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington DC (2013).

Ben-Tor's work is now included in the public collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Israel Museum, and the American University Museum, Washington DC. She received a grant from the Art Matters Foundation the same year as her FCA award (2008).

Ben-Tor graduated from The School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem (2006) and received an M.F.A. from Columbia University School of the Arts (2010).

A video still of Ben Tor in front of a green quilt patterned with green animals and leaves. She appears bald and wears a blue baseball cap, blue button up shirt, and has very thick eyebrows.
Still from FCA-supported Polam, 2009, DVD, 11:50 minutes. Courtesy of the aritst and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York.
A video still of Ben Tor walking on a path on a mountain, surrounded by shrubbery. She wears a skin colored cap on her head, a beard, and large fake hands and appears mid-stance and peering towards the right.
Still from FCA-supported Polam, 2009, DVD, 11:50 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York.
A close up video still of Ben Tor wearing a choppily cut blonde wig, crooked circular glasses, fake large teeth, and a blue top. She is in front of a floral patterned wall and holds a book to her face.
Still from FCA-supported Smudi, 2009, DVD, 9:30 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York.
A video still of Ben Tor wearing a short blonde wig, bushy eyebrows, a blonde handlebar mustache, a rose pattern hat, and an ornate blouse. She stands in a forest and weilds a bloody knife above her head. Her arm and the knife are outlined by a thin pixelated yellow line.
Still from FCA-supported Smudi, 2009, DVD, 9:30 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York.
A video still of Ben Tor wearing fake bushy eyebrows, a fake bushy beard, a maroon shirt, and a black scarf wrapped around her head. She falls back onto a floral patterned couch and raises her arms. She has a expression of shock. Beside her, there is an overturned table and a man adjusting books on the bookshelf. White text on the bottom reads:
Still from FCA-supported The Book Collector, 2010, DVD, 11:49 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York.
A video still of Ben Tor in front of a floral background, wearing a black cap, fake bushy eyebrows, a fake set of teeth (with some missing) and a grey suit jacket and pink plaid shirt. She holds her chin in her hand and looks into the distance. A video still of Ben Tor in front of a white wall, wearing a disorganized brown wig with scattered bits of hair on her face, a fake nose, and a grey suit jacket with a blue shirt. She hunches her shoulders and smiles at the camera.
Still from FCA-supported The Book Collector, 2010, DVD, 11:49 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York.
A video still of Ben Tor in front of a white wall, wearing a disorganized brown wig with scattered bits of hair on her face, a fake nose, and a grey suit jacket with a blue shirt. She hunches her shoulders and smiles at the camera.
Still from FCA-supported Yid, 2010, DVD, 3:46 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York.