Haya Cohen is an arts practitioner that expresses and experiments with versatile mediums, including working with living art. After immigrating to Australia with her family, in 1997, she worked as a gemologist. Later, Haya added academic studies to her busy life. She completed her PhD in visual arts and cultural industries at Griffith University, Australia. As an arts practitioner, Haya’s main focus is on the continual processes of material thinking and thinking through materials and the relationships between body/self/environment. Her work draws from interdisciplinary areas focusing on intersections between philosophy, biology, cognitive science, anthropology and art. Haya has exhibited internationally and across Australia and published academic papers in interdisciplinary journals and books. Her teaching experience includes Griffith University and Queensland College of Art.
In recent years Haya experiments with printmaking. Her interest in exploring materials and connecting lines of thought are brought through her etchings, linocuts and much more.
AM ARE I
Medium: found object-Embroidery frames, Cotton fabric, MRI digital prints, cotton threads.
Dimensions: Variable- each frame – 21 cm. diameter
The Images of my brain’s reactions to various sound stimuli are articulated through MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). The questions that arise when looking at the actual materialization of these reactions are about the relationship between identity and corporeality and the constant exchange with the environment. When articulated through medical images, I perceive these relationships as paradoxical. There is a gap that exists between the recognition of the self through reflection in various mediums to identifying oneself in the images of one’s internal organs. This gap is brought to attention through the use of multiples— although each image is separately framed they all portray one head through the use of materials.
By playing with the meaning of the words Am, Are and I, relating them to one person, I also highlight the multiplicity imbedded in the philosophical concept of the self as the environment. Thus, if a shift in perception and the values produced by modes of thinking are to be changed, the Cartesian and Newtonian mechanistic paradigm that regards the world as a perfect machine with exact mathematical order must give way to a holistic, ecological view that considers processes, practices and the connections that emerge from human activity to be of primary importance.
To challenge the aesthetic value linked to issues of identity I employ various materials. I have taken each image of my brain, converted it into a digital image and transferred it onto fabric. Each piece is inserted into a round embroidery frame to emphasise the individuality of each image. I have embroidered various areas with red thread. Not only is the contrast between the red thread against the blue colours of the image important here, but also the cultural significance it elaborates on. The choice of embroidering using a knot stitch taps into the various meanings the term ‘knot’ possesses. Amongst these connotations the term ‘knot’ is used in a medical discipline (i.e. translated directly from Hebrew) when identifying a group of cancer cells. At the same time, the process of making each knot individually, while still connecting behind the work, also reflects the notion of the contradiction of aesthetics.
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Cartesian (the Latinised name of Descartes) has become the accepted term for the dualistic view of human coined by the philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650). He identified thinking with the mind and related it to the human soul, while the body – secondary to the mind – was seen as the material, working as a machine.
