Artists: Nomi Tannhauser, Maya Alper, Meshy Koplevitch, Adi Drimer, Erez Cohen, Yuval Buchshtab, Tseela Greenberg, Adi Bezalel, Amit Cabessa, Vered Nachmani.
Exhibition Curator: Neta Gal-Azmon | Tattoos Project: Chen Eliya
Reaction Time | Group Exhibition
Beit Harishonim, Emeq Hefer | February-April 2024What happened afterwards?
How much time is after
Wards? Details are slowly starting
To come together about
A single moment that is
Entirely eternal
Israel Eliraz, “What Happened Afterwards”[1]
The exhibition Reaction Time was born out of a desire to touch upon the events of October 7 through art. In the place where words fail because of horror, because of intense emotions, images might seem to offer a safer path into the depths of the heart. The language of art creates an alternative channel of soft, gentle, and deep dialogue to process feelings and thoughts, so the viewer can withdraw intimately into their own world while at the same time engaging with the work of art.
This exhibition presents ten artists who experienced the gruesome events from varying degrees of separation or involvement, and felt the need to respond, each in their own way. Some were there physically and survived, some are still awaiting the return of a loved one who was taken hostage and whose life is at risk under Hamas captivity, others are evacuees, homeless, nomads against their will, while the remainder are shook up and pained, like all the country’s citizens.
Using plasticine, Nomi Tannhauser “painted” the image of Maya Alper, who hid from Hamas terrorists for six long hours in a bush at the “Nova” party site. Her strong spirit, meditative breathing, along with positive words of validation she repeated over and over like a mantra, enabled Maya to survive the hours of terror. In the tribute work, Tannhauser added, alongside the image of Maya, words that replicate the mediation exercises that helped her. Amit Cabessa painted the infinity symbol from a chain of floating bouquets within a black space of darkness. In her paintings, Adi Bezalel reproduces the horror of the young hostages, those who have returned and those who have been waiting too long for their release. In a booklet of medical records, Tseela Greenberg sketches verbal and visual responses to updates that appeared in the media on October 7. The pencil sketches, which have been printed in enlarged dimensions, present the helplessness of seeking shelter in the stairwell, absorbed in one’s cellphone, the moments of terror at the “Nova” party site, and the heartfelt wish: “When will there be good news?” Meshy Koplevitch, herself an evacuee, depicts the evacuee population through comics. She also presents a video animation work based on watercolor paintings she made following the gruesome hours in the towns surrounding the Gaza Strip. Adi Drimer transcribed, in a spiral continuum, the series of WhatsApp messages that appeared in the Kibbutz Re’im WhatsApp group from 8:20 to 9:59 am on that terrible Saturday morning. Vered Nachmani’s paintings, which were included in the exhibition even though they were created in 2015-2016, depict windows from the home’s interior, in the first morning light, which illuminates the world in its softness, as it illuminated the homes in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip at 6:30 am on the Simchat Torah holiday.
With a laser, Yuval Buchshtab burns a sketch of the fields of Kibbutz “Nirim” into paper, presenting them as scorched lines in an abstract-geometric composition. Using the projection mapping technique, Erez Cohen screens on the gallery’s dark wall, a video image of jittery ants moving mechanically and demonically in underground tunnels. Chen Eliya, who participated in a project to document survivors from the kibbutzim surrounding the Gaza Strip, collected 52 photographs of tattoos, and added the stories behind them. Branding in the skin symbols and memories linked to the fresh trauma turned out to be a widespread phenomenon. Because of its therapeutic role, she calls this “Branded by Light” instead of “Branded in Skin”.
[1] Literal translation from the Hebrew by Emily Cooper
Opening: Friday, 16.02.24 at 11:00-14:00
Opening hours: Monday-Thursday at 10:00-16:00, Weekends
Closing: Friday, 12.04.24
Know that time, enemies, the wind and the water
Will not erase you
You will continue, made up of letters
And that is not a little
Something, after all, will remain of you.
Haim Gouri, “Though I Wished for More of More”
Installation View
Images from the exhibition
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Tattoos Project: Chen Eliya
Branded by Light
Three weeks after October 7, I felt a need to document the stories of those who were there on that terrible day, with a clear understanding that this documentation would be very valuable now and in the future.
Happily, I was not the only one who felt this way. Eyal Lahav and Boaz Nobelman, my classmates from the kibbutz, heard a similar call. Thus, the “Kibbutz Testimony” team was established, with the aim of documenting the stories and personal experiences of people who endured the horrors of October 7.
The first time we arrived at the hotel in Eilat where members of the kibbutzim Ein HaShlosha and Re’im had been evacuated, I noticed a one-of-a-kind tattoo on one woman’s arm.
When I asked her if she would like to tell us something about the tattoo, I could never have guessed just how much the tattoo’s story would touch my heart and occupy my thoughts.
From one visit to the next, we noticed new tattoos people chose to have made following the events of October 7.
The tattoos wouldn’t leave me. I understood this was another way to remember, memorialize, cope, make choices and reclaim control.
The tattoos are a sign of power, faith, promise, consolation.
When the exhibition’s curator, Neta Gal-Azmon, told me she was about to curate an art exhibition of works created following the events of October 7 and the war, I proposed the idea of the tattoos as yet another special artistic expression which voices particularly deep heartfelt feelings.
We invited the general public to send pictures they shot themselves, simple non-professional photos, and to share the story of the tattoo that was inspired by the events of October 7.
I could never have imagined I would receive such a massive stream of responses.
The pictures of tattoos were accompanied by sentences such as: “This war tattoos my heart”; “Some things should be branded in flesh, so they will never be forgotten”; “I have to memorialize this on my skin”.
Behind every tattoo is a strong intention, precise choice, and great meaning, from its location on the body, to the choice of colors and shape, all the way up to the words selected. The tattoos tell a story that is private and personal on one hand, yet nationwide and public on the other hand.
Without a doubt, October 7 has been branded in the bodies and consciousness of all for eternity.
I would like to thank all the presenters in the exhibition who agreed to share the personal tattoos they chose to imprint on their skin, and to share in the sorrow of all those who lost everything they cherish.
We will never forget.
Chen Eliya