Ziz

Yonat Ofer’s exhibition weaves together a few bodies of works that are reflected in each other. Through images of women unaware of the observer’s eye that are drawn from different angles, she aims to study the gap between the object and its presence and the gaze which creates it. In a circular, oil on wood format reminiscent of peep-holes, the series of paintings reveals body fragments of a naked woman in a traditional realistic style painted in monochromatic black and white. The body parts are not always immediately recognizable and the choice of the frame looks like a cinematic cut, capturing random pieces of reality, thus creating a feeling of voyeurism and placing the viewer in an uncomfortable position.It seems that the images seek to interrupt the continuity of time. Through the fragmentation of the body, Ofer creates a mechanism of “non continuity”, detachment that disrupts logical time. The figure is present, but her face and coloring are missing. Thus an intimate space is born in which she strides in the twilight zone between concealing and revealing; it is as if she wants to remain mysterious and implicit.The bird is another motif in the exhibition. Usually it is placed on the shoulder of a women depicted from her back. It may be bird of prey or an integral part of the woman’s body. The woman touches danger yet remains protected, confronts with the help of the image, the exposed or the protected, with the vague and the clear – all flowing into a single image. Yonat Ofer refers to Nimrod (1938-39), the canonic work by Itzhak Danziger, and uses the Canaanite hunter figure for a discussion about the hunted and gender based perceptions.”Ziz” is an enormous bird from Jewish mythology. According to the myth, the bird’s unique quality is to protect all small birds in the country. The Ziz is so large, its wings can cover the sun, as a motif of both anxiety and protection. Thus, she links between the mythologies and wanders through borrowed narratives from the fantasy world as well as her own reality.
Nir Harmat