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 .