Need Rest, 2024
Acrylic, Graphite Point
51.2 x 38.2 in
When stopping is no longer enough to soothe the inner gaze: rest becomes a mere displacement, never a resolution.
Need Rest belongs to the Behind the Obvious series, in which Abraham Aronovitch uses the bathroom mirror as a device for reading contemporary inner states. Here, although the mirror is absent from the immediate visual field, it remains conceptually active: the reclining figure appears to seek a temporary escape from the space of the gaze and self-confrontation. The work thus places the body’s physical release in tension with the persistence of uninterrupted mental strain.
The body withdraws from the habitual space of face-to-face encounter with itself and stretches out within the landscape. Yet this search for pause does not constitute repair. Rest appears as a fragile necessity, incapable of fully interrupting the inner dialogue established by the mirror’s dispositif. Even outside the frame, the mirror continues to operate: the inner gaze persists, reminding us that appeasement is not found in the mere suspension of gesture, but in what remains stubbornly active within.