מעשה בהגשמה 2017
A Tale of Fruition 2017
Oil Triptych on Canvas, 125 x 225 cm
Commissioned artwork
Israel
Silence in Jezreel – Travel Scroll
דממה ביזרעאל – מגילת מסע
I am showing this work in the 2017 Jerusalem Biennale, in the group show “100 Years of the Balfour Declaration
The show opens tomorrow, Oct 2, at 17:00 in the Museum of the Underground Prisoners, in the Russian Compound, Jerusalem.
Built by the Czars as a hostel for Russian pilgrims, the museum later served the U.K. Mandate as a prison for those resisting their rule and striving for independence.
I am quite honored to have my work be the first exhibited after the entrance. As I hoped, it is hung in a long, vaulted passageway, and will be viewed as a narrative, read west to east, as the viewers walk by.
Silence in Jezreel, 2017
Gouache on panels, 46 x 366 cm. 18′ x 144″
דממה ביזרעאל, 2017
גואש על לוחות, 46 * 366 ס”מ
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Silence in Jezreel, or “Song of the Emek”, was composed in 1934, to romanticize the first, large Jewish settlement project, following the Balfour Declaration. This “Redemption” i.e. purchase of the land, was blessed by the British Mandate, which then still acted in accordance to the promises of the Declaration. It was a watershed With the start of construction, new archaeological discoveries showing showing the ancient Jewish presence in the Valley, fired up the settlers’ imagination.
I chose to tell our narrative of continuity and Zionism, as a travel scroll, passing through the string of valleys, from the Jordan to Haifa Bay. Icons from the 6th cent. synagogue mosaic at Bet Alpha are central to the work.
