Heellusion. Kobi Levi Footwear design exhibition

Never Enough Shoes!!! Heellusion, a must see shoe solo exhibition by Kobi Levi at the
Periscope Gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel, in show from February 23 till March 18 2023.

Shoes. Desire. Consumption.
“Embodied in the materials and aesthetics of the designed object […] is a complex system of relationships of those involved in its production and consumption […]. Many cultural and social meanings go into a designed object that sometimes symbolize the user’s identity and allude to significant moments in their life story.” – Jonathan Ventura, Objects: Industrial Design in Israel (Tel Aviv: Resling, 2014)

Shoes. A basic consumer product, an everyday object, capable of arousing strong emotion, desire, representing a web of meanings, symbols, connections, conflicts and impulses. Designer Kobi Levi works on that seam between fantasy, desire, use and consumption. A skilled artisan, he handcrafts each shoe, paying attention to every seam and detail, without compromising on the possibility of the final product’s actual use.

After completing his studies at Bezalel in 2001, Levi began to juggle between his urge to surprise and desire to create an open and critical space for a renewed examination of reality. Using iconic and conceptual symbols based on customs and lifestyles, the expected became the unexpected and the routine, surprising. His works evoke a wide range of feelings, based on personal memory on the one hand and collective cultural consciousness on the other.

Levi draws inspiration from his daily wanderings in the public space and with humor and grace offers an inquisitive perspective on the world. Animals, everyday objects, encounters with people—all are fertile ground for his creativity. He rescues objects from their passive condition and turns them into a generative, stimulating and motivating force for thought. He often uses the dimension of illusion to convey a message, which simultaneously heightens the experience. The illusion evokes questions about the gaps that separate the imagined from reality, trompe l’oeil from the real thing. Levi’s wondrous objects are like a puzzle or riddle in need of solving, and when a viewer cracks the code, a sense of satisfaction is their reward.

Exhibition curator Adi Yaniv. With Shoofra shoes.

Never Enough Shoes!!! Heellusion
On show: February 23 till March 18 2023.

Periscope Gallery גלריה פריסקופ
176 Ben Yehuda, Tel Aviv, Israel