Wall Stories Part II

The thing with wall paintings as opposed to studio painting is that in most cases you need to get some help to create them on schedule. For This work I had to drive twice to Jerusalem and back, and the first time my father came as a driver and an assistant. He was always there for me when I needed help, as if it is an unwritten law of nature, that a father should come for his daughter's request even if the mission is an obscure as painting a yellow door on a brick wall in another city.

It was a cold January day and we stopped on the way to Jerusalem to have a coffee. I didn't forget that talk because my father was really worried. He didn’t understand my choices in life and how can live without planning my future to be safe and steady. He wasn’t angry but very much concerned and even had unusual tears in his eyes. So I told him: “Daddy, I think mostly about the present because I know nothing about the future, except the fact that the future will be present one day too. So if I learn to be happy now, doing what I love to do, it means I will always find a way to be happy in the future”. I was pretty confident when i said that, so somehow it calmed him down...

In the end it was a very good day. We created a yellow door. It was an imagined door in a hallway full of big metal closed blue doors. The place was the Artists' Studios in Talpiot, Jerusalem. The yellow door brought some magic and light to the whole place and we were happy.

Another Dimention, artist's wall in the Artists Studios, Talpiot, Jerusalem. Invited and curated by Einat Amir, 01/2016.

The next project was a total corporation, again with my art partner and non biological sister Ktura Manor. It was a long process. We were invited by curator Tamar Manor Friedman to react to a special old building in Jerusalem called Schneller.

When we came to the site it was overwhelming. It was huge, beautiful and completely neglected place. Garbage everywhere, poor Graffiti from the worst kind, birds feces, ripped floor tiles and falling ceilings. Since we have some background in wall painting restoration, we pulled out scalpels and started scratching the walls and revealing some old paintings under the layers of paint.

Few months later we came back with a scaffold transported by Ben Buchenbacher from Tchelet Studio, and a camera men: Itamar Mendes Flohr. We were set out to find the remains of a christian wall painting of Agnus Dei on the wall of the church there, according to an archive photo found by Tamar.

We gave the materials to the talented editor Yarden Carmin, and the result was exhibited in a group show called “The Schneller Case” at the Jerusalem Artist’s House.

Alongside the video documentation we created two wall paintings in the exhibition.

After Agnus Dei, Ktura Manor and Rotem Manor, video and pencil on wall, Artist's House, 05/2016

The Syrian Orphan House, Ktura Manor and Rotem Manor, Acrylic on wall

The next project was also related to a specific building, It was the house on Fein Street number 1, Tel Aviv. when I got there it was already half destroyed. Only the western side of it was standing while showing the inner parts of a few rooms which were cut. This building on the edge of the old central bus station was a notorious dark place full of crime and violence. Prostitutes, drug dealers, the homeless, and those who pimped the women were abusing each other and sometimes to death.

What's left of the building, 11/2016

Me and a few more artists were invited for a tour of the historic Newe Shaanan neighborhood in Tel Aviv by Yasha Rozov and Ivry Baumgarten. They were organizing the 2016 edition of the Nightlight festival - a 3 day site-specific art event. They told me about the history of the place and i conducted further research which inspired me to react to the location.

So first came the sketch:

Sketch for the mural, ink and acrylic on paper

When we came to paint the mural, there was not much time because it wasn't exactly legal action so I was afraid a bit from the city police. Also there was no possibility to put a proper scaffold so we stood on a big metal container which was there and used 3 m long sticks to paint with. Sweet Maayan Levi and Shay Farkash helped me a lot too.

Layla Tov, Acrylic on wall, part of the Night Light Fesival in Tel Aviv, 12/2016

Took some time before the next wall painting, but in june this year, the Kandinof house in Yaffo offered me to make one. The beautiful amazon curators were Galit Azouge and Ariana Foranchai. I had to think quick because they gave me the green light a week before the opening. So The house was owned by a wealthy Jewish family who came from Buchara and had a real estate business in Palestine of that time. I wanted the painting to reflect some of the world this family has left behind, but also use my own way of painting and surreal imagery. So the idea should be a Bucharian style gate, way up high, close to the ceiling and not to the floor. The sketch was inspired by a muslim Madrasa gate which I saw in Uzbekistan on a family trip 15 years ago.

Buchara, Uzbekistan

The wall in Kandinof before the painting

The wall in Kandinof had the roughest surface I could imagine, It was hard to paint on, and I was a bit down in the first day because of it. But the next day was going better and the result was really satisfying. And good to know that it is still there so people can see it.

The Gate to Kandinof, acrylic on wall, 06/2017, photos by Ariana Foranchai