"Miriam is Your Beloved Daughter"

We enter the gallery. She is watching us. We return her gaze. The meeting takes place. We are inspecting her and she us. She has many faces and we flow from expression to expression – contemplative, mischievous, dreamy.  We ponder the story which lies behind each one of them…The prints combine the face of Miriam with the textures of the weave. It is easy to be drawn into a superficial observation of the combination of Eastern Indian ornamentalism, colors and portraits. Actually you are dealing with layers of discovery and concealment.

 It is here that the exhibition "Miriam is Your Beloved Daughter" immediately demands consideration …. We do not know from whom. Perhaps from the daughter herself. In truth, she is the one who sent her Mother the sentence is an SMS text message, an interesting statement and a starting point for the examination of Mother-daughter relationships.       

These complex relationships which rely on the past and sustain it, a past which provides a source of inspiration for present creation, and suggests a new way of looking at the same materials. One that dismantles and rebuilds them anew. The textures of the inanimate textiles are contrasted with the vibrant and changing personality of each print. They are almost freezing her yet, at the same time, they receive life when they comprise the fabric of her body. They are almost bursting from her, and at times, also becoming the screen which separates her from the observer.

The varied combinations of textures and colors, and the varied expressions of Miriam, are the attempt of the Mother to understand her daughter's essence… her complex character. The use of embroidery and weaving on the face of Miriam are like a rebirth of a Mother to her Parents and a Daughter to her Mother.  

From the writings of

Dr. Carmela Avdar

Lecturer, Faculty of Folklore, Hebrew University

(The writer is the artist's sister)

 

 "Miriam is Your beloved Daughter"

 
Once, during the week, we went together to a place of creation.

Me, whose world is closed and consolidated,

And her, the whole world open before her

She brought all her colors into the car.

It was forbidden to talk, to ask questions, until she woke up.

The whole way there her fingers flittered from station to station

And I, from what I heard, knew her mood.

Even when we didn't meet, we each felt the other.

She sent me messages and wrote me captions;

"The prince wishes to speak to you"

"Miriam is your beloved daughter"

 On the way back she staged

With all that digital and lighting

And when she'd finished,

I took the old Pantex,

There was a figure and there  was light,

The eye of the camera burnt her image

And I gathered crumbs from her table.
 
Once when we arrived the guard told me:

"you have the most beautiful daughter in the place"

I thought to myself, when, sitting we're all right.

 
Shoshanna Givon
February 2006