Ariel and Lavih Playing

This project is inspired by a painting by Pablo Picasso, “Claude and Paloma Playing”, 1950, in which Picasso painted his own children at the age of my own. My children 8 and 10 years old, served as live models for this work. The filming set is made from reused and painted wood, with all wheels set in motion by motors, connections to other wheels, strings pulled by external hands, or by my children as live models. Some algorithm parameters are also adjusted live by the models.

Ariel and Lavih playing , 2026
 Edition of 6 - UHD - 14min18

Live models, wood, motorized kinetic wheels, custom algorithm

The work is constructed entirely of wood and comprises a series of animated wheels driven by motors. The movement of the wheels is governed by an algorithm developed by Platnic, combining randomized automation with points of disruption introduced by the artist's children, who are able to intervene directly in the algorithm's control.

Certain wheels are manipulated by the children themselves, while others are operated by external hands that appear within accompanying video footage. The piece is presented as a system in which control is distributed between automated process, child intervention, and unseen external actors — a structure in which the viewer's sense of agency over the mechanism coexists with forces operating outside their awareness.

Ariel and lavih Playing, 2026
Edition of 6, Photograph, 118x145cm

Making-of picture
Set built in studio, first test with clothes