Land scape
Tali Navon
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Israel. My question was not cynical, but sincere. When I was 29, my first child was born. This completely changed the way I think. I was very aware of my responsibility to take care of him, which is a much greater responsibility than simply taking care of myself. I also came to the realization that my newborn son is not just mine, but part of a whole community of people that will have a variety of impacts on him that I cannot control.
My work focused on daily life, which served as a distraction of sorts, as can be seen in IVSHA, a series of oil works on glass.
He was born during a tumultuous time in Israel, in 1993, when terrorists were randomly blowing up buses all over the country, so I thought a lot about how to keep a child safe and alive in such circumstances. This led me to contemplate whether I should consider leaving the place I had been born and raised for somewhere I would feel safer and less anxious. They were confusing days and what got me through them was the daily routine of waking up every morning and focusing on what I needed to do instead of on the big picture, which I found quite threatening. My works from this period focus on home and family as well as the multifarious effects a community has upon its members. So my painting career began with exploring my identity as a daughter and then as a mother. I am one of three sisters and sought a way to function both as an individual on my own and as part of a family.