Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/paul-cheney-3148-1200x1800.jpg)
Charleston, SC | Spring 2024
FSA’s Inspired Garden Party + Open Studios honored Spring 2024 artists-in-residence, Yifat Bezalel and Nezaket Ekici. Despite the afternoon deluge, the rain provided an ethereal setting for the premiere of Nezaket Ekici’s performance “Piece | Peace of Heaven,” intensifying the presence of water symbolized in her performance. Both artists unveiled new work made during their residencies in Charleston in their open studios.
Yifat Bezalel Open Studio
Yifat Bezalel’s spring open studio seamlessly merges Renaissance and Baroque-inspired figurative drawing with Hebraic and Kabbalistic references, blending mysticism with art history and feminism with faith. In her studio, she featured two works that she was inspired to juxtapose in conversation with one another, which were informed by reflections during her Charleston residency, alongside new drawings and found objects. Bezalel’s film “Tehilla” is based on a story by S.Y. Agnon, referencing the poetic prayers and songs of King David from the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Bezalel’s heroine, Tehilla, an ageless and devout woman wandering Jerusalem, has dwelled in the world since the destruction of the Second Temple and is tasked with transforming the pain and sorrow of loss. She performs rituals invoking the Shekhinah (the divine presence) to address cosmic spiritual struggles, harmonizing what is negative, dark, and dense into light, order, and well-being.
Opposite this work is a projected image of Bezalel’s “Duty of the Hearts,” a drawing based on Michelangelo’s “Pietà,” created during a New York City-based residency last summer. In this image, the Mother of Mothers mourns her son, holding him like a baby. Both works depict women in sacred spaces: one in a black abyss activating salvation, the other in a deserted Jerusalem seeking redemption. These heroines symbolize “the unfathomed part of nature” and the essence of the Shekhinah or the divine feminine across all religions and spiritual traditions, embodying delicacy and strength simultaneously. Through silence, compassion, and humility, they activate a constant state of restoration, preservation, and expansion for humanity.
Nezaket Ekici Open Studio
Select Images
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Yifat Bezalel, "FSA Open Studios: The Diptych of Truth," 2024. Drawing, video projection, film, found objects.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Performance: FSA Open Studios. Water, blue watercolor, canvas, wooden platform, costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Performance: FSA Open Studios. Water, blue watercolor, canvas, wooden platform, costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Performance: FSA Open Studios. Water, blue watercolor, canvas, wooden platform, costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Performance: FSA Open Studios. Water, blue watercolor, canvas, wooden platform, costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Performance: FSA Open Studios. Water, blue watercolor, canvas, wooden platform, costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Performance: FSA Open Studios. Water, blue watercolor, canvas, wooden platform, costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Performance: FSA Open Studios. Water, blue watercolor, canvas, wooden platform, costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "FSA Open Studios: Feeling Stained Glass and Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Tape, paper, photography, objects (bowl with water, roses, yarn, candle holder, candle, book), costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)
Nezaket Ekici, "FSA Open Studios: Feeling Stained Glass and Piece | Peace of Heaven," 2024. Tape, paper, photography, objects (bowl with water, roses, yarn, candle holder, candle, book), costumes.
![](https://fsa.art/wp-content/themes/fsa_2022/assets/img/spacer.png)