Interview With Tslil Tsemet

Growing up in the exorbitantly politically charged environment of Jerusalem, artist Tslil Tsemet was bound to find some of that manifesting in her art.

- Sarah Elise Abramson

Her paintings lie at the intersection of creepy and humorous. Her subject matters are often telling a story dealing with social and cultural matters, which are clearly very much entwined in the fiber of her being. Artists paint what they know, what they’ve experienced or want to experience, and what topics are important to them. This is exactly what Tsemet is doing. She believes that laughter as well as art are both healing remedies in this sick, sad world, so those are the things she puts into action. Her slightly disturbing imagery demands your attention. Then after a longer look, the dark humor of it all hits you and you’re suddenly able to laugh at these hideously daunting things and people therefore taking their power away ever so slightly. .

Tsemet is a strong believer in the truth that we are all one; we are all connected. Stripped of our clothing, our skin tones, our speech, our religious beliefs, we are all just naked bodies plodding around trying to make sense of ourselves and the world. She has found that painting her subjects in the nude gets this message across more directly. She is also calling upon the fact that nudity does not always have to equal sex or sexiness. Bodies are bodies and we all have them.

“Through art I examine the human species based upon the social and cultural values to which it is bond, and to those ideals we grasp in order to maintain our sanity,” says Tsemet. As she is still an emerging artist, she struggles with where her art actually belongs but seeing as how her technique is competent and cunning, not to mention powerful, and her topics of choice are relevant and striking, I believe she is one to watch. We can expect very large—she usually paints on canvases that about 60 by 40 inches—and influential paintings from her in the coming years.