Zemer Peled: Suspension

Zemer Peled’s Suspension, 2017 is a site-specific environment composed of delicately interlocked porcelain lines suspended in air. This installation is presented alongside brother Amit Peled’s cello program “Journey with My Jewishness” and provides a physical composition in dialogue with Amit’s musical compositions. Just as the individual notes in a music rely on one another to create a whole, Zemer’s physical composition is composed of individual porcelain lines held together only by gravity to create a three-dimensional space. The process behind the installation is perilous: the artist adds the hooked porcelain fragments one by one, pushing the material to its limit to create a precarious yet sustained environment, manifesting the idea of musical notes sustained in time and space. As the installation grows more complex, the work is continuously in danger of collapsing from the weight of its own individual pieces.

The porcelain lines intertwine and evolve organically to create what Peled describes as a “three-dimensional drawing in space” which pulls inspiration from both natural forms and the concept of the melodic line. Additionally Suspension responds in kind to the repetitive process of combining a single unit, the musical note, to create a complex and multi-layered composition. Suspension is also informed by the device of tension and release in music. Among its various layers are: the literal tension of gravity holding the porcelain lines together, the emotional tension caused by the fact that the fragile pieces could break at any moment, and by the physical representation of a moment of musical tension caused by the sustaining of chord for an extended period of time. The notes of a sustained chord seem to be suspended in air, manifested through Peled’s installation which is suspended on the verge of change and awaiting resolution.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website