Guilt, Excess of Presence
A body built from bent and welded iron. The collected material is no longer a word, but it still carries load, memory, and weight.
View the work — Guilt, Excess of PresenceYOGI METAL ART WORKS
Where It Started
I’m Yogi
I’m Yogi.
On October 7th I was at the Nova festival. I survived that day, went straight into reserve duty, and only later understood that not everything had stayed behind.
Working with my hands began out of that — not to explain everything, but to give things material, weight, and form.
When the Hands Started Working
The first works didn’t begin with a plan to become a sculptor or to open a studio.
They began with a need to work with my hands.
In the period after October 7th I collected metal and pieces of iron left in the combat areas. At first I wasn’t making sculptures. I cut, joined, and welded words, names, dates, and sentences that stayed in my head and found no other way out.
Some of the first works were placed in a grove and in the parking lot at Re’im. They weren’t made as products, or as works for commercial display, but as marks inside a place heavy with memory, loss, and silence.
These were the works of the beginning.
Not every sculpture I make today is built from material collected in the combat areas. That material is not offered as a war souvenir, and its value does not come from where it came from. The meaning is in the process — in the act of collecting, joining, welding, and turning material that remained into a new form.
The Early Archive
Seven images from the first period — works placed in the field, works prepared in the studio, and works in progress. January–April 2024.
The Words Became Lines
In time, words were no longer enough.
They began to bend, to leave the letters behind, and to become a body.
A line holding up a head. A hand trying to shield. A figure left inside another time.
That is how the move from the word works to today’s sculptural language began.
Intrusive Thoughts 01
The line grows sparer. The body draws in and tries to protect itself, while the thoughts keep breaking out of the head.
View the work — Intrusive Thoughts 01The Work Today
Today I work mainly with bending and welding iron.
I look for how few lines it takes for a body, a movement, or a memory to be present. Sometimes a single bend is enough to hold a posture, and a small weld is enough to make a joint, a fracture, or a point of tension.
The marks of the work and the welds are not hidden. They are part of the form and of the way it came to be.
The works deal with body, memory, survival, time, and breath — but also with connection, nature, home, family, tradition, animals, and symbols.
Not every work tells October 7th. But the way I look at the body, at material, at time, and at our ability to hold ourselves has changed since.
Where the Work Continues
Body, Memory, and Survival
Works about protection, inner weight, disconnection, time, and the attempt to continue when something has stayed behind.
View the worksConnection, Nature, and Home
Works about closeness, devotion, roots, family, tradition, and the ability of one form to hold another.
View the worksWorks Born from Conversation
A work can begin with a person, a space, a memory, a symbol, or a feeling that is hard to explain. Custom works are built out of a personal conversation and a search for the exact form for a story.
About custom worksAbout the Artist
Yogi is an Israeli artist and sculptor, and the founder of YOGI METAL ART WORKS. The work centres on linear iron sculpture and deals with body, memory, survival, connection, and material. This artistic language developed after October 7th out of working by hand, welded words, and a gradual process in which words turned into form and into a body.
The beginning is still inside the works of today. You don’t always see it right away, but it is there in every bend, every weld, and every line that stayed.