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Articles

Back Home - Yitzhak Ben-Ner

From time to time I return to Kfar Yehoshua, village of my birth, the village where my family and friends, members of the second and third generations, live – and this return is always, as I return home to Tel Aviv, somewhat disappointing in its repetitive routine. My homecoming to the village through the works of Eli Shamir is always more exciting, more experiential. Those familiar landscapes, the plowed clumps of earth in the fields, the cows in the sheds, the roofs of the chicken coops, the cypresses, the dust and the chicken coop odors – and, first and foremost, the generations of villagers posing in profound solemnity for Eli Shamir's examining and loving eye, for his hand, his pens and brushes – they are the village, like a truth which no sealed and signed document, no ... Read more

Clashing Myths in the Twilight Zone - Sagi Refael

Greek mythology tells the story of Phaëton, who boasted being the son of Phoebus, the Sun God.[1] Goaded by one of his friends to prove this, Phaëton approached his father who, having agreed to do anything to prove his paternity, was obliged to let Phaëton ride the sun chariot. The inexperienced Phaëton lost control of the horses' reins and caused the earth at times to burn and at others to freeze, as he veered closer to and away from it with the chariot, until Zeus, king of the gods, was compelled to hurl his lightning at the chariot and halt it. Phaëton was thrown out and plunged to his death in the River Eridanus. The arrogance of the son of a god, who wanted to prove his independence and his skill in his father's art, believing his divine affinity would protect him, cost him his ... Read more

Oak Thicket Ariel Hirschfeld

Localness is a sensual experience imprinted in the consciousness of a man living in a locality – until he identifies it with his own personality. The very place – its lights, coolness and warmth, its scents, its birds and beetles – is imprinted and stamped into consciousness, in its most primary mold. Localness is not to be confused with nativeness, which is a statement of ownership of and belonging to a locality which leans upon a mythological interpretation of nativity – as if a covert contact is made, bypassing all sense and understanding, between the newborn and the place; a contact that bestows the place with a deep magnetic force. The "native" is a kind of a man, almost a race. A local is a man whose place, even if he was not born there, is his through a deep existential ... Read more

Rustic Sunset- Yitzhak Ben-Ner

During the rainy season all seven roads to the village circle glisten with the water that fills the wheel ruts – even those roads where wagons have not passed in years. Under hopeless black skies the village circle shines like a sun with seven rays, as in the drawing we used to make in our distant childhood. The village is my birthplace, and I love it dearly: the village, its people, its fields and gardens, its winter and summer skies, its cobbled roads, its granaries, chicken coops, barns and lawns, the roar of its tractors and the circle of tall, thick cypress trees pointing toward the sky, their needles like a dark green pelt, shadowy and mysterious. I love its children, its dirt roads, dusty in summer and muddy in winter, the straw drifting in the breeze, the herds of cows ... Read more

Family Portrait (Achilles Chooses the String of Pearls) Shlomit Shakked

The subtitle of Elie Shamir's painting implies that the mythological hero Achilles chose the string of pearls when his identity was challenged. Mythology, however, tells a different tale: Achilles' mother Thetis knew he was destined to be killed in the Trojan war. In order to prevent his death, she sent him to King Lycomedes' court, where he was made to hide among the maidens, wear women's clothes and occupy himself with weaving. Odysseus, who arrived at the palace disguised as a peddler, brought along women's jewelry as well as swords and daggers. The maidens crowded around the jewelry whereas Achilles went for the weapons. His choice revealed his identity and determined his fate. Achilles was killed on the battlefield, Paris' arrow hitting his heel – his weak point. The ... Read more

Foreword to "EMEK" exhibition by Mordechai Omer

EMEK-ON THE ROAD TO KFAR YEHOSHUA Mordechai Omer In the late 1970s I began teaching Art History at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.[1] The first two courses I taught were "Artists of the New York School and their Viewpoint on Suffering" and "Marcel Duchamp and his Influence on Conceptual Art"; both courses were attended by Elie Shamir, an absorbed, inquiring student for whom, one may generally say, the history of art was an inalienable part of paving his way as an artist. In 1978, while still a student at Bezalel, and again in 1995, he underwent a crisis of faith, for which the history of art was both a cure and a starting point for new directions to justify artistic work. The opening paragraph of Baudrillard's essay on "The Aesthetic Illusion" deals with a subject that illustrates ... Read more