The CherryBlossom Alley
Abraham Aronovitch, 2023. Acrylic on canvas, 97 × 130 cm, Behind the Obvious series.
When the mirror dissolves into the landscape, the face-to-face no longer unfolds between two bodies, but between who one is and the image one projects of oneself.
Reading note
With The Cherry Blossom Alley, Abraham Aronovitch extends the Behind the Obvious series by shifting the motif of the bathroom mirror towards an exterior space that has become mental. The mirror is no longer visible, but internalised: the scene operates as a surface of projection where the individual confronts social narratives and expected images of the self. The painting thus explores the construction of identity through the tension between lived present and anticipated future.
Within this blossoming alley turned mental screen, the mirror no longer returns a physical image, but an intimate division. The female figures embody two simultaneous temporalities: one oriented towards an idealised image, the other anchored in the present moment. As is often the case in the artist’s work, the composition reveals a silent instability in which desire and norm coexist. The painting keeps this tension open, without resolution or hierarchy, inviting the viewer to inhabit the space between who one is and who one imagines becoming.
The whole room: The Escape
Room 2 · The Escape, The Mental Window : 6 paintings, in hanging order.
