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ונוס בעמקקמעב סונו

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Venus of the valley

 

A digital color collage printed on banner (PVC).

In recent years I have been interested in kibbutz iconography which was displayed as murals and other aspects of the culture

in kibbutzim, especially in the 1940s-1960s.

As a child on Kibbutz Mizra, the works of Tushek-Avraham Amerant were part of my childhood,

And this language – the kibbutz mother tongue, is a part of who I am.

The first work I did in an attempt to connect kibbutz iconography to my art was in the series 'Kibbutz Basilica', which was first presented in 2022 at the 'Ha'amakim' Gallery in Kibbutz Sha'ar Ha'amakim and was a tribute exhibition to Avraham Amerant-Tushek and Avraham Omri from the Kibbutz.

In this work, I combined kibbutz with Christian iconography and influences from classical paintings.

The kibbutz basilica was invited to the Ein -Harod Art Museum by the Chief Curator Yaniv Shapira.

The series continues to be displayed in galleries until today.

The Ha'emek Museum Curator Idit Ran Shachnai approached me following the 'Basilica' with an invitation to do a wall work in a similar style, but due to lack of budget and time, we decided to hang a printed work that I created as a Digital collage.

The starting point of the work – Venus of the Valley was an old corn shelling machine that is on display in the agricultural tool's exhibition at the Ha'emek Museum. The old machine with its large wheel and seashell-shaped spoon captured my eyes. From there, my thoughts wandered to another seashell that appears in Piero della Francesca’s immortal painting located in the Brera Museum in Milan.

The painting displays Duke Federico de Montefeltro kneeling in front of the Madonna holding the baby Jesus in her arms.

Above the figures is a seashell that symbolizes the new Venus, eternal beauty and her connection to the sea and water,

As in Botticelli’s famous painting – The Birth of Venus.

I decided to combine these elements in a kind of creative collage in which there is a local Venus and she walks out of the seashell into the fields of the valley. I combined beautiful photos of dancers from the Shavuot celebration in Ramat Yohanan in the collage together with Other photos, including a photo of my mother - Hagar Tal, whose image appears in the center of the work as Venus, and again when she was photographed as a child on Shavuot in Kibbutz Mizra in about 1942-3.

As in the 'Basilica', here too I combine iconography - Christian and kibbutz's - from there and here- toghether.

A copy of the work 'Venus of the Valley' was displayed in Ramat Yohanan in April 2025 in a large-scale exhibition on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the kibbutz Omer ceremony, which was founded by Matityahu Shalem, a member of the kibbutz.

Another copy of the work was displayed at the 'Hansen House' in Jerusalem in the exhibition 'Above Water' curated by Ofer Getz.

The kibbutz mother tongue continues to accompany me. It is the culture in which I grew up and is one of my foundation stones.

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