7th Exhibition in the 15th Nidbach Series

Eti Tal’s oil paintings begin with observation: a gaze of a woman observing her culture observing her back, passing through the painting activity which seems to both disintegrate and assemble the puzzle of her life. That is, fragmenting her own culture into a microscopic examination of ‘cultural genetics’, and its re-assembling into a re-structuring of her identity. Tal returns to her grandparents’ typical Georgian home in Ramle-Lod which is centered around an intensely decorated living room – loaded with colorful rugs, crystals, porcelains and ‘tea services’. This is where she paints and photographs herself, placing her body and flesh in friction with these objects. Tal’s examination of the material images representing the roots of her identity enables a glance at the relationship created between them, feeding her self-image. We are thus exposed to the pendulum movement between the environment and the body, the view of the young and the traditional, the subversive and patriarchal.Noa Tzoran