New Safety Card

The exhibition addresses states of emergency. The emergency scenarios in my work
are mostly imaginary and can exist in unknown time and place. The paintings
examine the constant state of alertness for emergencies, particularly present in our
contemporary time, through the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, the dangers of
war, fears of ecological disasters, and the unpredictable consequences of artificial
intelligence.
The base color of the painting is a glow-in-the-dark paint, designed for bomb
shelters. This color illuminates the sense of urgency and chaos during moments of
rushing to safety. The human figures are based on illustrations from airplane
emergency safety cards. These images echo a graphic and naive visual language,
standing in stark contrast to the catastrophic situations they represent. I created the
sketches for these paintings using various AI tools - a technology that embodies both
progress and a potential threat to human nature and the surrounding world.
Instructions from safety cards, such as “Brace for Impact”, have become more
relevant than ever in our reality. War, the climate crisis, and accelerating
technological developments fuel anxieties, deepen feelings of chaos and insecurity,
and lead to an obsessive focus on preparing for extreme situations.

The works New Safety Card and Public Shelter were presented in the exhibition “Graduates at Rosenfeld” at Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv (2024–2025), curated by Mia Frenkel Tene.
In his review in Haaretz, critic Avi Pitchon wrote about Oryan Yakobi’s work:

“Oryan Yakobi offers a more innovative proposal for Rosenfeld’s line, based on the horror radiated by the surrealism of her scenes: parodies of the emergency instruction leaflets distributed on airplanes…”
Pitchon described the exhibition as one that “holds up a dark mirror to reality, shaking us out of the survivalist dissociation we live in,” positioning Yakobi’s works as challenging the formal boundaries of the gallery through charged imagery of emergency, fear, and dark humor.

Credit:
Avi Pitchon, “Graduates at Rosenfeld: An Exhibition that Holds Up a Dark Mirror to Reality,” Haaretz, December 5, 2024.