Lena Zidel ''Lena and a Seal'' 2016

Lena Zidel ''Lena and a Seal'' 2016
Pencil and Water colors on paper 

20/27 cm 

Signed front 

Lena Zaidel – Recipient of the Shoshanah Ish-Shalom Award for Artwork, 2015

Presenting the reasons for the choice of Zaidel, the members of the board the Shoshanah Ish-Shalom Award – Ronit Sorek of the Israel Museum, the artist Maya Israel, and the representative of the Ish-Shalom family, Lilakh Raziel – wrote: “The image of the wolf stands at the center of Lena Zaidel’s drawing for the last two decades. The expressive wolves that she presents roam about the Jerusalem streets in the series, “All Places are Holy,” as a tangible reminder of the hidden powers and processes taking place in the city. A figure of a wolf made of twigs, surprising in its material and its power, was presented before the award committee. Zaidel copied the texture of the dry pastel that she used in her paintings onto a three-dimensional work thickly woven and forming a “drawing” in space, continuing her multi-line drawings. The use of twigs, a seemingly simple material, and the way in which they were woven, reminds us of folk art. But the surrealistic image that she has created is comprised of layers of various cultural and political meanings. The absurd combination created in the drawings of Zaidel, who “plants” her wolves within the urban scenery of Jerusalem, facilitates a constant reflection upon the role of an artist as a presenter of an absurd reality, as well as a sounder of an alarm against it. Paradoxically, specifically the delving into the sights at the periphery of the city emphasize Zaidel’s love of what is depicted, of Jerusalem, whose sacredness has been secularized, and perhaps the opposite, as arises from the series of drawings. For the artist’s ability to broaden the boundaries of drawings into the three-dimensional image and to reformulate it in sculpture, we have found her deserving of receiving the Shoshanah Ish-Shalom Award.”

Erev Rav – Independent Internet Magazine for Art, Culture and Society, edited by Ronen Eidelman and Yonatan Amir. (published on: 15.12.2015, 10:30)