Yael Davids

Yael Davids, Wingspan of the captive, 2021. Installation view at Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Stuart Whipps

Yael Davids, Wingspan of the captive, 2021. Installation view at Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Stuart Whipps

Yael Davids, Wingspan of the captive, 2021. Installation view at Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Mark McNulty

Yael Davids, Wingspan of the captive, 2021. Installation view at Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Yael Davids, Wingspan of the captive, 2021. Installation view at Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Mark McNulty

Yael Davids, Wingspan of the captive, 2021. Installation view at Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Mark McNulty

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Yael Davids (b. 1968, Kibbutz Tzuba, Jerusalem) lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Davids examines the capacities in which the body operates as a documentary vessel – in connection to collective heritage, political narrative and private biographies. Inspired by Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais, she experiments with somatic learning and alternative systems of knowledge transfer and production. Composed of performative, sculptural, and archival elements, her works often take the form of choreographic assemblages. Recent exhibitions and performances include Van Abbe Museum, the Netherlands (2019); Documenta 14, Germany and Greece (2017); Rotterdam Cultural Histories 7#: Performance Festival Perish, Witte de With, the Netherlands (2016); and Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, France (2015).

Project Description

Yael Davids presented her work Wingspan of the captive (2021) at Liverpool Central Library. David’s project responded to The Birds of America – a rare nineteenth century book containing illustrations by American naturalist and painter John James Audubon. Davids considers the anatomy, behaviour, and movements of these birds – exploring what it means to migrate, to study and be studied.This research has compelled Davids to reflect on modes and categories of togetherness. Such kinships transcend fixed, physical geographies, establishing points of connection across generations and diverse cultural backgrounds.

Davids engaged with a local kinship group, introducing them to the Feldenkrais Method in weekly sessions; Slow sequential patterns of movement that cultivate awareness – excavating bodily knowledge – an archaeological performance and practice of care directed towards oneself. These sessions embodied the birds trapped in the pages of The Birds of America.

This work was presented in collaboration with Andre van bergen, Hanna Dawn Henderson and Lotte Lara Schroder.

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial with support from Mondriaan Fund and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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