Black Birds

Curator: Yaniv Shapira

Artist: Avital Cnaani

Duration: 2015.03.26 -2015.05.24

Venue: Hall 2，Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art (RMCA)

Organizer: Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art (RMCA)

On March 22, 2015, sponsored by Consulate General of Israel in Guangzhou and Redtory Culture & Art Organization, Israeli Artist Avital Cnaani’s Solo Exhibition “Black Birds” was launched at Hall 2, Guangzhou Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art. In the intraday Artistic Dialogue of Opening Ceremony, Curator Yaniv Shapira deemed that Avital’s works tacitly integrated two media of sculpture and painting. If a painting is mounted on a plank, it will become a part of sculpture. On the other hand, the sculpture made of plastic panel is concurrently equipped with a sense of sculpture, a sense of lines and forms in painting. As to the painting work Black Birds, if it is displayed horizontally on the floor, a sense of sculpture will also be achieved through appreciation, touching and other methods.

Avital often names her artistic works with women’s names. In addition, she will also utilize this woman’s hair or intention to undertake creations. She said, she initially intended to make a sculpture on woman’s hair, while more manifestations of an animal’s shape were achieved. Avital said her works are derived from the human body, they form images of primordial animals, pieces of frayed land, vegetation that climbs and falls, heads whose shape escaped them. Using materials such as wood chips, clay and rumpled formica, her sculptures are imitating discarded living bodies, hanging limply on the wall or resting agitatedly on the floor-thorny, frightening and overpowering. The nature described in the sculptures is defeated. It is revealed in its nakedness, laid horizontally on the floor or on the wall. It is reduced to its basic shapes, animatedly striped down of its original being and transformed to a standard entirety.

The painting work Black Birds manifests a demarcation between life and death and bring a relatively heavy-hearted feeling to people, which will form a sharp contrast with the vitality manifested by birds’ flying in the sky in the previous impression. The aim of the painting is to come up with relevant ideology issues on relevant objects and their surrounding environment. In Avital’s opinion, the painting work Black Birds represents relevant ideology issues in relationships between wild animals and nature, human beings and animals as well as domesticated animals and wild animals.

The Consul-General of Israel in Guangzhou Mr.Yaacov Avrahamy

At the opening ceremony, Yaacov Avrahamy, the consul general of the Israeli consulate general in guangzhou, addressed the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

In Judaism, we have a famous noun called the Promised Land. It contains a strong and deep contract that allows the Jewish people to stay in the land of Israel. And for everyone, there is a "Promised Land" . I t's the same for me, a piece of land, a house, or the view of the landscape as a final attribute of our "home".

In this exhibition, the Vital work of art closely and clearly linked to the land of Israel, I want all of you can goes into each work experience to feel.

Curator: Yaniv Shapira

In the opening scene, curators Yaniv Shapira, said: "most of Vital’s works are in the form of painting and sculpture creation, and with her own artistic language combine both. If you look closely at each work, will find Vital used a lot about mountains, animals (birds, for example), these natural elements such as trees. ”

Artist: Vital Cnaani

Artist Vital Cnaani said at the opening ceremony: "I believe that good art does not need too many words. I hope that we can use the body, soul, spirit and imagination to feel or understand my work.

Redtory representative at the opening ceremony, said: " Vital Cnaani 's works to our unique viewing experience, in the exhibition hall of the scene, let us works as if has become a role - black birds, shuttle in the sky and the mountains, and thereby and put our heart into yearning for freedom, close to the nature.

Vital 's works with the gorgeous colour and the displaying model to give us a perspective of self-channel has been set up, which makes us see the existence of life is often overlooked, regain the feelings are ignored. These are the moves of the artist's work."

【Academic】Gellary Talk

Speaker: Artist: vital Cnaani × Curator: Yaniv Shapira

Date:2015.3.22

Venue: Hall 2, Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art (RMCA)

About the lecture:

My works are located in a junction between sculpting and drawing. Derived from the human body, they form images of primordial animals, pieces of frayed land, vegetation that climbs and falls, heads whose shape escaped them.Using Materials such as wood chips, clay and  rumpled Formica, my sculptures are imitating discarded living bodies, hanging limply on the wall or resting agitatedly on the floor - thorny, frightening and overpowering.

The drawings, made with carbon copy paper and ink, graphite or paper cuts, are a choreography of lines and shapes that are competing and completing each other in a play of heaviness and lightness, thickness and airiness. Hiding and revealing. Diving and floating. They are crowding together as if they are trying to become a  substance.

The nature describes in my sculptures is defeated. It is revealed in its nakedness, laid horizontally on the floor or on the wall. It is reduced to its basic shapes, animated and striped down of its original being as an archetypal whole.

My installations aim to rise ideological questions regarding the correlation between an object and its surroundings, which simbolizes for me the relationships between wild life and nature, animals and humans and between the domestic and the savage.  

About the speakers:

Avital Cnaani: Avital Cnaani received her MFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and her B.ED. from Hamidrasha School of Art. She received the Israeli Ministry Culture Award for Young Artists in 2009 and was an America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship recipient in 2004, 2005 and 2008. Sinceher first solo exhibition in 2004, Cnaani has had four solo exhibitions in Israel, including at the Herzelia Museum, Petach-Tikva Museum and Gallery 39. She has also had numerous exhibitions internationally, including at the Israel Museum, George Kolbe Museum in Berlin Germany, Kuandu Museum in Taiwan Soma Museum in Seoul and Harlem Studio in New York.

Curator:Yaniv Shapira: Yaniv Shapira was born in Israel (1967). He studied Art History and Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Since 1995 he serves as a curator at the Museum of Art, Ein Harod, where he has curated numerous art exhibitions. He has been the Director and the Curator of 'the Kibbutz Gallery' in Tel Aviv for five years and a guest curator at several other museums and galleries in Israel and abroad. Shapira is currently completing his doctoral dissertation which deals with sense of Place, of Belonging and of Identity in Israeli Art.