An exhibition in Ra’anana portrays the modern woman as an agent for change.
By GLORIA DEUTSCHSima Kirshner(photo credit: REUTERS)
The name of the latest exhibition to be put on by the Ra’anana Municipal Gallery is “The Many Faces of Women.” It will run until the beginning of May and the curator, Orna Fichman, feels it is one of the most important exhibitions ever shown in the gallery.The message that the 40 exhibits – mostly paintings of women – are meant to convey is feminism, an almost aggressive need to proclaim the liberation of women over the last decades.“Although the exhibition was planned to coincide with International Women’s Month [the whole of March], I felt that women’s standing can be examined at any time,” says Fichman. “In it we are trying to tell the story of the modern woman as an agent for change, and convey how in the last decades issues like body, gender, motherhood and relations between the sexes have taken center-stage.”Taking the exhibition as a whole, the dominant theme is that women are no longer the weaker sex and that the equality that pioneering women, especially in Israel, demanded has finally arrived in most domains – and if it hasn’t, it should.Fifteen women artists and one man display their works to convey the feminist message. The lone man exhibiting, Natan Elkanovich, was chosen by the curator for a reason that further hints at the all-important message.“I saw his painting of Marilyn Monroe displayed in a Tel Aviv gallery and I wanted it for this exhibition right away,” recounts Fichman. “The Hollywood icon is depicted to show that this is how men want their women. On close inspection one sees that the portrait is made of sugar icing stars, suggesting that this is how she is seen – a sex object with a child-like voice and supposedly low intelligence.“But the artist gives other clues that are critical about the way she is treated; her clothes are made of a spongy material, an obvious symbol for how she absorbed what society expected of her – making her, in the end, a tragic victim.”Tamar Morgenstern, the first artist represented, has several items in the exhibition. In the first, she lists all the things women do to preserve their physical looks – surgery, makeup, liposuction, Botox – but in the end, she declares that “gravity wins,” and we see a manicured hand dropping a heavy stone.The next picture shows a little girl in a dress, and the same girl dressed in trousers. She has been transformed into a tomboy with a ball in her hand. The caption is “Mutar lach,” or “Yes, you can.” The third is the mantra “I deserve an Oscar,” cataloguing all the different things women are required to do on a regular day.“She is saying that women have to multitask while men only have to do one thing – go to work,” notes Fichman. “The reality here is that we still have not reached full equality.”Hagit Shachal has several self-portraits of a woman putting on makeup, clipping her toenails and generally trying to beautify herself. The suggestion is that women go to any lengths to be attractive, and this is reinforced by a set of black-and-white pictures cut from linoleum showing the torture of high heels and tight corsets.“She is asking whether we should suffer for looks or be free,” clarifies Fichman.Jennifer Bar-Lev includes in her colorful acrylic paintings depictions of women who influence other women – and these include the designer Coco Chanel, the model Kate Moss – and Miss Piggy. In another series, she pictures stars from the ’40s and ’50s, all with a cigarette dangling from their lips, and suggests they were trailblazers in their own way, too.Sima Kirshner, a single mother, depicts herself as a heavily tattooed bride – but there is no groom, no ring and she is standing in a kitchen with her back to the camera.“Even though she is liberated, her place is still in the kitchen,” the curator points out.Ronit Yanitski shows a corset once worn to produce a tiny waist, opened up to show the tortures women endured; she has two women dressed as men and two women as brides, marrying each other. She builds around her clearly lesbian characters a defensive wall made of flowers and beads, suggesting that women can express their sexuality for each other and remain feminine.Ayelet Sela presents a portrait of Frida Kahlo in mosaic, complete with the one long eyebrow and a colorful headdress.“She was the most famous woman artist in the world,” says Fichman, “and the artist chooses mosaic also to convey the many different layers of Kahlo’s personality.”Dinah Levi paints two women dancing together in a woman’s circle, supporting each other to prevent one of them falling over. It is an obvious allegory for the fact that groups of women give each other strength. The painting, oil on canvas, is done in bright green and orange, and is one of the most colorful in the exhibition.Michal Zehavi’s work, titled Habayta or Home Sweet Home, is a depiction of the womb and ovaries – in red balls of wool. The implication is that the world considers a woman’s primary function to be producing babies.Shira Calfon paints a woman lying alone in a double bed that is also a flying carpet. She is sad and the painting poses many questions, explains Fichman: Why is she alone? What is she waiting for? Perhaps the whole painting is a metaphor for the loneliness of marriage; it is for the observer to decide.Haya Gretz Ran contributes a series of women pioneers dressed in white with their hair covered in white scarves – all painted on what look like chopping boards. Some have burns in them, as though they have been well-used in the kibbutz kitchen. The feeling one gets from the unsmiling faces of the women is that they still suffer from prejudice and are condemned to menial work, in spite of the ostensible equality of the society in which they live.Four women pioneers are shown seated on the grass, still not smiling – and clearly dependent on each other. Finally, Liri Ben-Dov paints six portraits of women from behind, their hair collected into a ponytail or chignon.“It’s as if they are saying that with the hair tied back, a woman can express herself and her personality through the choices of hairdo,” notes Fichman.For the visitor to the exhibition, there are many messages to be derived from looking at these works.“The job of art is not just visual,” stresses Fichman. “You can convey many messages, as this exhibition does. The fact that it is done by pictures rather than words makes the impact of the message stronger and more immediate.”
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