“A person is but a pattern of their homeland,” said Shaul Tshernihovsky. And this can be said about art as well. It consists of impressions left by time and place, impressions of land, scenery and people. The character of the land on which we grow, its nature and scenery, are all absorbed into our consciousness, processed, and then find outlet in our artistic creation.
War and conquests do not make up a people. Culture and art do. They bestow people with spiritual values, and create common understandings, bring about the discerning of right from wrong. They are the ones that strengthen man’s connection to their homeland and define to him the laws of the universe.
In the fields of Arsuf we grow art.
The artists of the Green Gallery Group are united by the aspiration to strengthen the connection of the people to nature and the land, both physically and spiritually. Our creations are presented on the ground, in the open. They are made of natural materials, but moreover, they speak of concepts taken right out of nature. Of the identical laws governing nature and man, of the circle of life common to both. Out of the earth spring out the sprouts. They grow, flourish, breed, wither and die. Seasons come and go, reflecting our own time cycles.
The work “Too Bad” by Danny Manheim is not a flowerpot tipping over, but a story of life and death. The statue “Earth and Heaven” by Ada Moran-Rice surprises us with a piece of sky at a time when we face the earth. “Laundry” by Eli Ben Aviv is a humoristic creation, where tree branches - earth’s garments, hanged like laundry. Gilla Crocker, in her work “Static System”, reminds us of the similarity between molecules and the solar system. Ella Beit Halahmy created a “Limpha” – an imaginary monster where pipes formerly feeding the fields now flow life into the creature’s body.
More and more people live in an urban, virtual world, and getting closer to the basic sensations of touching the earth, smelling it, sensing its texture, has become a rare commodity. The connection to earth is a basic, primary need, without which the delicate balance of man is violated. Just like a plant needs to spread its roots inside the earth, so does man.
We do hope our work shall bring people closer to nature, providing them with spiritual oxygen.
Curator: Tanya Preminger.
