Critical Zone, 2024
Acrylic, Graphite Point
51.2 x 38.2 in
The mirror no longer reflects the self, but becomes a space of transition where identity is suspended between falling and floating.
From the series Behind the Obvious, Critical Zone explores the bathroom mirror not as an instrument of narcissism, but as a metaphysical threshold. Here, Abraham Aronovitch stages the precise moment when the everyday gaze falters, giving way to vertiginous introspection.*
The work is structured around a chromatic and material duality: in the foreground, the matte quality of the acrylic-painted body anchors the scene in a carnal reality, while graphite accents underline the fragility of presence. By questioning the condition of being when confronted with its own shadow zones, the work captures a universal moment of disconnection in which the familiar becomes strange. By refusing to resolve the figure’s movement—neither falling nor taking flight—the artist establishes a condition of sustained crisis: a visual silence where resolution is no longer the objective, and where only the persistence of the gaze matters.

