Na'amah - A Tribute to Nahum Benari | Hilla Ben Ari

Na'amah - A Tribute to Nahum Benari | Hilla Ben Ari

Gary R. Libby Gallery

Join the University Galleries for Na'amah - A Tribute to Nahum Benari | Hilla Ben Ari from March 25 through April 19, 2019 in the Gary R. Libby Gallery.

All events are free and open to the public.

Ben Ari’s Na’amah is based on the play Tubal Cain, written by Nahum Benari, her great uncle, who was a founder of Kibbutz Ein Harod and the Museum of Art Ein Harod. His play is a retelling of the biblical story of Tubal-Cain, a blacksmith who is confronted with issues of community, creative powers, hubris, sin, guilt, and punishment.

In her interpretation, Ben Ari turns the story towards Tubal-Cain’s mute sister, Na’amah, and re-examines the story through a gender prism, seeking to expand the critical perceptions eimbedded within the story. A cCommon themes throughout Ben Ari’s oeuvre is the embodiment of the female form  body as the crossroads of political, social, and cultural context. She uses the trembling and strained body to symbolize the component of personal time and space which is threatened by regimentation.

“This tribute project to my great uncle integrates biographical dimension along with mythical, historical and social issues, Ben Ari said. “I see great importance in the intergenerational dialog which allows to challenge the notion of time and creates layers of interpretation that nurture each other.”

Hilla Ben Ari is a prize-winning visual artist based in Tel Aviv. In her work, she employs various mediums such as video, installation, sculpture and print. She has been featured in exhibitions at various art venues including the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Art - Ein Harod, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, MAXXI Museum and the Orange County Museum of Art. Her works are in the collections of The Israel Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Bundestag and others. Ben Ari teaches in the Department of Ceramics and Glass at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, the Art Institute in Oranim Academic College and at the Basis Art School. Ben Ari is a visiting guest artist this semester as part of “The Visiting Israeli Artists Program” of the Israeli Institute.

More information about Hilla Ben Ari and her works can be found on her website: http://www.hillabenari.com/

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