The Cycle of Life
The Cycle of Life is an ambitious series I have been working on since 2016. This project started with an urge to explore more existentialist questions as they manifest in our time. I am intrigued by the ways in which the human experience has evolved over history, on the one hand the emotional and philosophical questions which continue to engage us, and on the other, their setting of our daily life and technology which constantly change and affect us in turn. Through depictions of birth, childhood, youth, midlife, old age and death, I aim to represent how our eternal joys, fears, passions and despairs can be expressed visually within the unique setting of our time. Truthful to reality and always painted from life, these works are artificially orchestrated, creating a realistic yet imagined scene. By carefully choosing the composition, objects and figures that exemplify the most typical aspects, and at the same time serve as allegories, I offer my personal commentary and interpretation.
Each of the images is set to characterise what I believe to be a universal experience and provides keys into hidden, deeper observations. The months-long process of working on such large works consists of numerous decisions: the initial concept, the size of the canvas, choosing the most suitable models, searching for the right objects and artefacts, arranging the scene etc. In the next section, I elaborate on this process for each of the works, provided in chronological order.
Life Itself
The title of this painting is an ironic take on a quote from Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 election campaign, in which he presented himself as the sole protector of “life itself”, in response to questions and criticism on the quality of life in Israel. This work represents “midlife”, or Life Itself, as a state without mercy, in which beauty is marginalised by aggravating daily concerns. The protagonist seems to have just returned home from a stressful day at work only to find herself plunging back into the chaos and dissatisfaction of her personal life. The painting shows a moment of rest from her endless duties and distractions. The objects surrounding her are mass-production artefacts, lacking individuality and grace, represented in poisonous colours. They seem to remind us that they were not made to last, and they will all be thrown away shortly after being used just once. In the seventeenth-century Netherlands and Vermeer’s paintings in particular, a letter on the table used to hint at hope or a distant lover. In this case, it seems to be nothing but a grim, unpaid bill.
Death
This painting is my rather secular interpretation on the subject of death. It depicts a prosaic, day-to-day image of death which suggests there is no continuity, since it is followed by neither heaven nor hell. The viewer is faced with what is left after death: a naked body in a cold room and a whole series of questions. The plastic skeleton, gazing
at us directly with its vacant eyes, pointing “the finger” at us, is a macabre reminder of our inevitable destiny. The living viewers are left with nothing but loneliness, void and fear.
For this painting, I orchestrated an entire hospital room in the studio using carefully selected items. The biggest challenge, however, was finding an elderly model who would be willing to commit himself for such a ghastly task. The composition is intentionally intriguing and challenging, with the cadaver in strong foreshortening further back in the space, while the skeleton is positioned vertically and closer to the viewer. It is a subtle reference to The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman by Rembrandt, and the famous Mantegna Lamentation over the Dead Christ. The colour scheme is intentionally wintry and grim. The completion of this painting took almost two years, which is the longest I have ever worked on one painting.
Old Age
This diptych of old age is about memory, reflection, and how fantasy and reality interact. It is personified in an accomplished elderly man who is nonetheless rather unwell. Surrounded by belongings collected during his life, he contemplates his own youth and the promise of the past.
This ensemble pays tribute to Rembrandt’s biblical Saul and David. In the original story, David’s playing is said to have pleased King Saul. In Rembrandt’s painting, however, Saul weeps while listening to young David playing the harp. It seems that Rembrandt chose to interpret the situation by depicting the elderly king realising perhaps that his heyday is gone and that the future is no longer his. In my version, Saul is not a king. He is positioned in a contemporary, though old-fashioned setting, lacking regal attributes, and in a contemplative state of mind.
The second part of the painting shows young David as a symbol of hope and beauty. He is shown playing a “Belle Époque” harp (brought to my studio especially from a historical harp-repair workshop in Hamburg!) in a scene which could be seen as an alternative reality. Might he be a memory or a figment of King Saul’s, or even of our, imagination? Around him exotic plants luxuriate, mirroring his energy of life and growth. He does not make eye contact either with Saul or with us, but rather seems concentrated on his own life and aspirations.
Youth
In this work I attempt to challenge and criticise current values, the absurd lack of communication in the age of social networks, and some debates about gender and social identities. It depicts a young couple, apparently shortly after making love. The female protagonist, exposed in her classic posture and beauty, is staring at us and seems to be begging for more attention and empathy than she has received. Our appreciation for, and attraction to, her beauty is not intended to simply objectify her but rather to underline the sometimes problematic and allusive tension between caring and desire, and between outer appearance and inner world.
Although she is the main figure, she appears as if tossed aside after use, like everything else in this room which obviously belongs to a teenage boy, while the attention of the boy is already directed back to his cellphone.
The items scattered around suggest that he sees himself as cool and politically aware.
The underlying statement is that political correctness, or having what is considered as a progressive set of values, is no guarantee for seeing others with empathy, and might not be the key to justice or kindness.
Birth
A seemingly utopian depiction of the anticipation of the arrival of a newborn. The room / world is carefully prepared in advance for the needs of the future baby girl (as the selected doctrinal items in the room and the colour scheme clearly suggest). The scene, however, is not ideal, as the room is filled with artificial artefacts that all symbolise difficulties and limitations later in life. The unicorn toy, for example, is a metaphor for idealistic, unachievable fantasies; the nappies symbolise the inevitable animalism of life, while the astronaut- shaped, half-filled balloon, shows ambitions bound to never reach the skies.
Childhood
The last part of the series, which is still a work in progress, is composed as fragments of memories, depicting how today’s childhood might be remembered in the future. Instead of one large canvas, it is created as a montage made from many smaller works that together form a one-wall exhibition, not unlike early Renaissance altarpieces. At this point five of the smaller scenes are already finished. It will showcase children of different ages, characters and backgrounds, with a variety of childhood experiences, and is intended to give us a taste of how fantastically colourful life can be.
