Varda Yatom at Tal Gallery Kfar Vradim, Autumn 2006 This Exhibition presents ceramic art created by Varda Yatom during different periods, including the most recent. The Exhibition deals with the Ascent of Man, his aspiration to strive, scale the steepest heights and even fly beyond, into unknown physical and spiritual realms. On the way, Man traverses the years of his life shouldering the unavoidable burden of private and public fate and reality.
Integrity and morality are elements vital for the construction and survival of a stable social order (*) during the Ascent of the individual and the group in the evolutionary struggle for survival. The work of the creative artist mirrors that Ascent, examines reality from a unique and individual view point and thus arouses dialog and self criticism.
The Exhibition illustrates three themes: the individual, the group and the artist. The figures that Varda creates are formed from ancient materials, clay, stone, thread. iron, leather ..., touch on Canaanite art and symbolize Judaism and the Land of Israel, yet the spirit and ideas are also universal and modern in their posing of fundamental questions of human existence. Asa Kasher (**) writes on Mans' search for meaning, imagined as a swimmer creating significance for his life by a conscious decision to swim with or against the rivers' current, compared to the empty life of a man floating on the surface and carried by the current wherever it will. Varda Yatoms' images strain for significance in their effort to ascend against the opposing pull of Nature. Some raise themselves, some remain below and some fall, amid impossible situations in an environment creating a sense of continual movement.
Visitors to the Exhibition cannot but face up to the existential questions as formed and formulated by Varda, the answers to which perhaps may emerge from thoughtful introspection and the Unknown. Varda Yatom, artist in ceramic sculpture and installation, her creativity with clay and other materials recognized internationally by many awards, has shown her work in sole and group exhibitions in Israel and around the world and has been honored as Artist in Residence under various programs. Varda lives and strives in Kibbutz Sasa on the Northern Border, a place which has now, after the war, high-lighted the relevance of her creations. Ady Greenfeld, Curator
Translation by Geoff Goodman
*Charles Darwin The Descent of Man ,originally published New York 1874 ,new edition by Prometheus books1998 ,p.136
**Vered Levy- Barzilai, Seventeen Conversations with Asa Kasher, Kinneret,Zamura-Beitan, Dvir, , 2005 p 225. (in Hebrew) |
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