{"id":12509,"date":"2011-05-19T23:17:45","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T06:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=12509"},"modified":"2011-05-19T23:19:06","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T06:19:06","slug":"vered-aharonovitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=12509","title":{"rendered":"Vered Aharonovitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent Fresh Paint art fair showcased a host of independent artists in what is titled the Artists Greenhouse. Despite, or maybe because of, the fact that Fresh Paint is the biggest art fair of the year in Israel, it is quite easy for an artists work to go unnoticed, to blend in with literally hundreds of other works. One of the artists in the \u201cGreenhouse\u201d who stood out for me was the work of Vered Aharonovitch, an artist who has made the transition from painter to sculptor.<\/p>\n

Aharonovitch\u2019 new work is peopled with intense and \u2018prickly\u2019 children, who are at one moment angry and defensive and the next, giving and submissive. The forms are striking because of the strong physical poses adopted by the characters – children with their head down, fists clenched, ready for battle. Bodies contort in unnatural and painfully protective positions. These are characters we see or have seen in the street or the school-yard. Which of us has not witnessed or taken part in a scene when a child coming under threat of attack, immediately assumes similarly defensive gestures, becomes on their guard, makes ready for the onslaught.<\/p>\n

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Vered Aharonovitch, "spiky girl", 2010, bronze<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An awareness of the body permeates Aharonovitch\u2019 work; and this is echoed in her pure enjoyment of the physical act of sculpting. On a visit with the artist to the foundry where her pieces are cast, Aharonovitch\u2019 sense of ease with the materials and processes involved in casting, was plain to see. Foundry\u2019s are workmanlike places, involving working with harsh materials and furnaces; you need a certain \u2018grittiness\u2019 for this sort of environment, and it became apparent that Aharonovitch had it in spades from the respect and warmth shown her by male co-workers almost twice her size.<\/p>\n

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Vered Aharonovitch, "porcupine girl", 2011, fiberglass, porcupine quills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aharonovitch\u2019 sculptures are occasionally reminiscent of strange old-world curios and what the \u2018modernists\u2019 referred to as \u2018fetishes\u2019, the African and pre-Columbian statues that made their influence felt on art in the early 20th Century. The figure \u201cAnything To Please You\u201d reveals a slightly twisted sense of humour, a figure contorting and offering iced-cakes for our pleasure; the figure is slightly carnivalesque and would not look out of place in an antique shop displaying weird 50\u2019s Americana. There are figures with protective armour, horns and spiky head-dresses. The artist made it clear at her exhibit at Fresh Paint that she wanted the viewer to engage with and touch the sculptures, yet the sharp and spiky armour suggests that you should do so gently.<\/p>\n

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Vered Aharonovitch, "anything to please you", 2010, aluminum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the demand to be taken \u2018seriously\u2019 asked of us by the artist\u2019s characters, we cannot help suppressing a small smile when viewing some of the works. Although we are aware of the apparent threat revealed by the characters\u2019 defensive pose, we have seen this pose so many times in our life, that we recognize in it something profoundly childlike – an almost clich\u00e9d expression of anger or dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n

Aharonovitch has spent the last two years preparing works for the Fresh Paint exhibit, she is now looking forward to getting started on new work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent Fresh Paint art fair showcased a host of independent artists in what is titled the Artists Greenhouse. Despite, or maybe because of, the fact that Fresh Paint is the biggest art fair of the year in Israel, it is quite easy for an artists work to go unnoticed, to blend in with literally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}