Maayan Strauss is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Her work examines infrastructure, labor, and common facilities and reflects on the nature and condition of artistic production. She holds an MFA in photography from Yale University (2012) and a B. Arch. from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (2008).
Her recent project The Service Room was realized as part of the Session program Recess. Recent solo exhibitions include Seven Sinks at Andrea Meislin Gallery and I Love The Way You Use This at Louis B. James Gallery in New York. She is the founder of Container Artist Residency, an artist residency on board operating commercial container ships; Sushi Bar Gallery in Brooklyn; and an editor of Art Handler.
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Spring Clean (part 1, Tide), digital inkjet print and video, work in progress.
Works
The Service Room, 2017, installation and web platform, realized as part of Recess’ Session program. A customized countertop includes functional design features—such as sinks, electric stovetop and oven, massage bed, and computer workstation—tailored to facilitate a host of possible communal service exchanges, scheduled through an online scheduling system.
http://www.theserviceroom.com/
The Service Room: Performance, 2017, Four dancers perform a choreography which responds directly to the surfaces, fixtures, and objects on the 'island.' The performers move in couples, rotating among themselves in exchanges that incorporate typical gestures of domestic and work environments, as well as unexpected movements generated by the diverse facilities’ adjacency.
Container Artist Residency, 2014-Ongoing. Container Artist Residency takes the form of an artist-in-residence program and a hybrid art institution. Taking place on board commercial cargo ships traveling along existing international shipping routes, the project establishes a framework through which artists can engage directly with this typically restricted sector.
http://containerartistresidency01.org/
The photographs and videos shown here, were taken during my first trip on board a container ship, which was the starting point of the Container Artist Residency. Subsequently, the images were used to represent the project in the media and various proposals, and Container Artist Residency as an organization.
Creative Operational Solutions, 2017, Group exhibition culminating the first edition of Container Artist Residency, Installation view of entrance wall; Para Site, Hong Kong.
Land Cruiser, 2005, video, 09:55 minutes (sample and stills from video) The video features a driving-choreography performed by six SUVs, shot from a construction crane near the coast of Tel Aviv.
Seven Sinks, 2015, Sculpture with sinks, faucets, inkjet print, water, mechanized water system, 3x13x10.5 IN. The faucets connect to a computer and run in changing capacities, from light drip to strong flow, creating a rhythmic sound experience in the space.
Laundry, 2012, single channel video, 06:34 minutes
I Love The Way You Use This, Installation with steel construction, digital inkjet mounted on MDF, cardboard packaging, 2015. Photographs of personal romantic memorabilia, both documented and staged, mounted on MDF pieces. Adopting the Apple store format, pre-packaged stacks of these objects were displayed, sold and made available to be handled (experienced) by viewers.
Jonathan, 2012, Installation, mixed media: MDF boards, inkjet prints (mounted on both sides of board), painted steel structures and video projection.
Jonathan was my crush in 3rd grade/I almost married Jonathan two years ago in NY city hall/When I was little, my favorite doll's name was Jonathan/His eyes would close when you'd lean him back/I always wanted to name my son Jonathan
Rowing, 2011, single channel video 02:25 minutes
Video documenting the Yale University rowing crew during practices.
Departure, 2011, video 09:20 minutes
Video shot from a freight ship leaving the Port of Haifa, IL, sailing Israel to New Jersey, US.
Untitled (Car), 2007, Outdoor installation with a car, concrete and tar. The installation was built in a parking space in the city center of Herzliya, using a body of an old Renault Clio, covered and embedded in the asphalt road. The installation was part of the Herzliya Biennale for Contemporary Art, September 2007.
Billboards, 2010, photographs and video
On the Road to IKEA, 2003, Installation with metal bar, hangers and watercolor paintings on cardboard. The installation appropriated the setting of a boutique to display a collection of watercolor landscape paintings of Israeli roadside views. Painted as adornments on clothing-shaped cardboard cutouts the visitors were invited to view the paintings as shoppers in a clothing boutique.
