Haya Cohen is an arts practitioner that expresses and experiments with versatile mediums, including working with living art. After immigrating to Australia with her family, in 1997, she worked as a gemologist. Later, Haya added academic studies to her busy life. She completed her PhD in visual arts and cultural industries at Griffith University, Australia. As an arts practitioner, Haya’s main focus is on the continual processes of material thinking and thinking through materials and the relationships between body/self/environment. Her work draws from interdisciplinary areas focusing on intersections between philosophy, biology, cognitive science, anthropology and art. Haya has exhibited internationally and across Australia and published academic papers in interdisciplinary journals and books. Her teaching experience includes Griffith University and Queensland College of Art.
In recent years Haya experiments with printmaking. Her interest in exploring materials and connecting lines of thought are brought through her etchings, linocuts and much more.
TEXTILE ART
Textiled Becomings
The works presented in this exhibition explore the ways in which cultural, social and environmental forces are intertwined in the creative process and are reflected through specific materials and embodied performative activities.
Knitting a corpoself
Knitting a Corpoself invites the audience to move in and around the room where a knitted body is entwined with/in environment. My installation draws from the traditional story of the golem in the Jewish myth where the golem is an artificially created man, in most cases.
Alchemy
This piece aims to accentuate the multidimensional processes of transformation engaged with and on the course of healing from cancer. Alchemy is created with immense appreciation and respect to the people and families touched by Cancer.
Connecting Threads
Fostering connections among people through performance art and textiles, this approach invites the audience to actively participate in the creation of the artwork by providing them with the necessary materials.
Mending Kerala
My residency in vibrant and contrasting landscapes of Kerala, India. Stitching together pieces of fabric dyed with spices, patterned with both the majestic and the ordinary, integrate deep-seated cultural traditions with the contemporary.