Wind Words Featuring: Daniel Enkaoua, Sapir Gal, Mark Glezin, Amir Tomashov, Reuven Zahavi Curator: Hadas Glazer “May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them?” (Job 16: 3) The notion of “words that are like the wind” is taken from the Book of Job. In the biblical story, Job complains to his friends that their words of comfort and support following the disasters that befell him are meaningless and hollow – empty and pointless words that fail to offer any real relief and solace. The verse echoes our current crisis, and the question of the role of art in this time. Are words of “wind,” of spirit and beauty really insignificant and trivial at a time like this? Against this, we can point out that the human soul actually longs for moments of exultation and delight precisely in such dark moments. This exhibition is situated in the space that stretches between these two notions.
The still life paintings capture the essence of the symbolist expression, formulated through the careful arrangement of the objects on the canvas, while taking into account factors such as balance, color, and light and shadow. In the tradition of still life paintings, the objects carry a symbolic meaning that reflects themes like death, extravagance, and wealth, transience and the passage of time by focusing on the spectacular beauty of the banal. The paintings in the exhibition depict toys, dried flowers, skulls, fruits and vegetables, grass, shoots, and bare roots. These works correspond with the tradition of Vanitas and Memento Mori (“remember you must die”) paintings, in which the skull and wilted flowers symbolize the transient nature of life.
The exhibition features work by five painters, mostly still lifes, alongside a few paintings of vegetation and portraits. The works explore the beauty embodied in life as well as in death, touching on vacuity of life alongside existential questions. The enticing beauty of the paintings invites reflections on this tension between fascination and repulsion, and between admiration and indifference.
A couple of the paintings in the exhibition are portraits of children. These are the children of the artists, a subject that exemplifies the vitality and charm of youth, and presents the timeless nature of existential questions. Unlike the still lifes that focus on inanimate objects, the children’s portraits capture the essence of human life in its purest form. The objects of childhood portrayed in the still life paintings serve as emblems of innocence and nostalgia. The intersection of these two genres invites reflections on the relationship between innocence, vulnerability, and the passage of time as well as contemplation on the human experience.
Although the exhibition is an artistic resonance of the collective state of grief and anxiety in which the State of Israel finds itself, it does not directly express the devastation, pain or horrors of the war. On the contrary, the works wish to touch on the anguish, pain, and death through spectacular beauty, impeccable aesthetics, and the use of symbolic language. Through this prism, the artistic experience opens a window to an inner world and to the depths of human existence, which is teeming with contradictions and conflicts.
The visit to the exhibition summons reflections on the winding path, which splits and unites as it flows between the beautiful and the morbid, and between eternity and life’s transience. The “words of the wind” in the exhibition illuminate the interplay between still life, Memento Mori, and childhood. Through the diverse works, we are reminded of the fragility of life, the innocence of youth, and the
