Art roundup: Trolling terrorist sympathizers with 'Dear Hamas'

Sculptor Dan Reisner offers free guided tours of his Tel Aviv studio. Reisner, who struggled with post-trauma, created a unique healing method, which he now offers to others. 

He was featured in Art Roundup this summer for being the first Israeli artist to have his work included in the International African American Museum collection. 

That work was a large, decapitated metal head with the face of the late George Floyd. 11 Nitzana St. Tel Aviv. Contact via danreisner@gmail.com. 

ISRAEL MUSEUM, Jerusalem - Staff began placing precious artworks in secure conditions as per wartime emergency protocol.

“Such protocols are in place for war or natural disaster scenarios,” Head of Conservation Sharon Tager told The Jerusalem Post.

The decision was taken on Saturday, October 7, when Hamas invaded Israel.

“Each emergency protocol takes into account the material needs of the collection discussed, the structure in which it is placed, and the conditions on the ground,” Tager explained. For example, one building might have more storage units available than others.

Paintings on loan from other museums or private collectors were placed by technical experts and conservation specialists in secure storage facilities.

“This is our ethical obligation to those who lent us these works,” Tager pointed out.

As the museum safeguards national cultural treasures, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, these too were removed and placed in a safe location until peace returns.

“It is vital to remember human lives are more important than anything else,” Tager concluded. “Our top priority is to secure our collections after we make sure people’s lives are safe.”

HEFER VALLEY - Zuzu Gallery presents “On Life and Death,” a group exhibition curated by Neta Gal-Azmon, each weekend until Saturday, November 18. The exhibition includes works by Ori Gersh, Shahar Marcus, Dina Shenhav, and more. Shenhav’s work, Feast, is a sponge-made recreation of a table loaded with good things to eat. Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free. Visit: www.zuzugallery.com for details.

EIN HAROD - Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod, offers a free pottery workshop by Udi Charka for children aged six to 12. The Hebrew class is primarily designed for families evacuated from the south and north of the country, but all are welcome. The activity is offered Wednesday, November 1, 1-3 p.m. Sign up via https://katzr.net/1de3c7.

WATCH: EPOS - The International Art Film Festival, has released a selection of outstanding movies via VOD for free viewing. These include David Shulman’s 2017 documentary Basquiat: Rage to Riches, which depicts the life of Brooklyn-born artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. To learn more about the offered works, visit https:/epos.filmart.co.il/.

Trolling Hamas

Israeli artist Tami Ben Tor created a video artwork titled Dear Hamas. In it, she inhabits the fictional character of an over-the-top radical liberal college professor who cheers the radical Islamic group while weeping the butchering of cows for the meat industry.

The work is very much in step with past ones created by Ben Tor, who explored the difficult subject of the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler in a series of works (My Name is Adolf Hitler, 2003, and Women Talk about Adolf Hitler, 2004), as well as Middle East issues.

In her 2010 work MEMRI TV, Ben Tor used the same concept, a foolish character saying outlandish things. These statements include, “How can anyone believe the lies of the Jews that paper comes from trees?” The outraged fictional speaker expresses his disbelief when he argues that it is not possible that “the holy Quran came from a tree.” However, MEMRI TV did not prove nearly as powerful as Dear Hamas.

Pro-Hamas student groups are pressuring Hunter College to fire Ben Tor from her position of adjunct professor as punishment for making Dear Hamas, Artnews reported last Friday.

Art for grief, painting hope

Local artists show solidarity and take up their brushes to offer a vision of hope to a nation reeling after an unprecedented murder spree.

Zoya Cherkassy Nnadi painted Bring them Back Home, calling for the return of roughly 200 people abducted by Hamas. While her works normally depict an ironic take on life (Rich People are Friends, 2006, is an example), these times are not normal.

Cherkassy Nnadi’s current works display a return to an almost naïve faith in the power of painting, not seen since perhaps late fresco painter Moshe Tamir presented his works in the 1950s.

Shira Gepstien Moshkovich recently shared on social media a moving work in progress titled Death Flowers Bloom Once More. The painting was done in memory of a dear friend of hers, a mother of three, who was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas.

Moshkovich, a powerful painter who often deals with the roles of women in art, would be the first to note the connection with Kora of Sicyon. Pliny the Elder describes Kora as the woman who invented painting when she traced the shadow of her beloved on a wall before he went to war.

Painter and curator Liav Mizrahi and other artists have been painting the portraits of the kidnapped civilians held by Hamas in the tunnels of Gaza each Monday at the entrance of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Titled This is Us, this project was co-created by Fresh Paint and Yotzrim Seviva (Creating Surroundings).

The various artists got permission from the hostages’ families to paint the images of their loved ones in an ongoing effort to capture attention to their plight so that more people join the fight to bring them back.

Art Roundup is a monthly glance at some of the finest art exhibitions and events currently shown across the country. Artists, curators, and collectors are welcome to send pitches to hagay_hacohen@yahoo.com with “Art Roundup” in the email subject.