Loving couples

Mirit Ben Nun: Shortness of breath ‘Shortness of breath’ is not only a sign of physical weakness, it is a metaphor for a mental state of strong desire that knows no repletion; more and more, an unbearable glut, without repose. Mirit Ben Nun’s type of work on the other hand requires an abundance of patience. This is a Sisyphean work (requiring hard labor) of marking lines and dots, filling every empty millimeter with brilliant blots. Therefore we are facing a paradox or a logical conflict. A patient and effortful work that stems from an urgent need to cover and fill, to adorn and coat. Her craft of layering reaches a state of a continuous ceremonial ritual. This ritual digests every object into itself – useful or discarded — available and ordinary or rare and exceptional — they submit and devote to the overlay work. Mirit BN gathers scrap off the streets — cardboard rolls of fabric, assortments of wooden boards and pieces, plates and planks — and constructs a new link, her own syntax, which she alone is fully responsible for. The new combination — a type of a sculptural construction — goes through a process of patching by the act of painting. In fact Mirit regards her three dimensional objects as a platform for painting, with a uniform continuity, even if it has obstacles, mounds and valleys. These objects beg her to paint, to lay down colors, to set in motion an intricate weave of abstract patterns that at times finds itself wandering the contours of human images and sometimes — not. In those cases what is left is the monotonous activity of running the patterns, inch by inch, till their absolute coverage, till a short and passing instant of respite and than on again to a new onset. Next to this assembly of garbage and it’s recycling into ‘painted sculptures’ Mirit offers a surprising reunion between her illustrated objects and so called cheap African sculpture; popular artifacts or articles that are classified in the standard culture as ‘primitive’. This combination emphasizes the difference between her individualistic performance and the collective creation which is translated into cultural clichés. The wood carved image creates a moment of peace within the crowded bustle; an introverted image, without repetitiveness and reverberation. This meeting of strangers testifies that Mirit’ work could not be labeled under the ´outsiders art´ category. She is a one woman school who is compelled to do the art work she picked out to perform. Therefore she isn’t creating ´an image´ such as the carved wooden statues, but she produces breathless ´emotional jam’ whose highest values are color, motion, beauty and plenitude. May it never lack, neither diluted, nor dull for even an instant Tali Tamir

There is no doubt that Mirit Ben Nun s art derives, like a refreshing meteor in our skies, from that very source into our over- saturated art of photographic images and messages. As a self-taught artist, she grew outside of the lubricated system of art academies and does not suffer from the search for meaning. Her paintings burst out from within her as a primordial need to provoke the canvas, to attack it with an unstoppable obsession that leaves no corner hiding. The need to self- express does not stop but wants to continue and flow with her spiritual storm – perhaps to silence the demons within.

David Gerstein

The painting is engulfing as a result of being primitive, free from justification and the sense of guilt for not being intellectual. It comes from the unconscious creative the psychological drive which is not adapted to a language of nuances and does not require decoding. Mirits spectator is bombarded with a colorful abundance, with repeating images and metaphors that are easily perceived and identified. For the person who is accustomed to the sophisticated art form, this is a fresh breath of immediate beauty. Perhaps this is the place and the time to go deeper into the roots of a culture which for generations now has been obscured with theories and isms. David Gerstein

These paintings express a personal need to delineate images and fantasies abundant with color and emotional explosion. Signs, lines and the materials appear of their own volition and develop as an external language bridging the eye, the hand and the painted surface.
During the making of a painting the power of the shapes emanate from an unconscious and concealed inner dimension.

Ami Steinitz

Line by line, painting after painting while repeating shapes and patterns, a creation evolves into new shapes and patterns. With a determination that reaches obsession, Mirit Ben-Nun keeps on returning to her art of meticulous decoration. A strong presence of primitive ornamentation provides the artwork with a tribal facet on one hand and a feminine touch on the other, encompassing embroidery, bead threading and weaving among others. Ben- Nun’s beautifying urge carries within it an archetypal strata, mythic at times, which empowers her authentic expression.

Dr. Gidion Ofrat

Mirit Ben-Nun believes and feels that art is a vital and necessary function for human existence, it is what enriches the human race.

For Mirit it is her everyday language and her wish is that it reaches the one who observes her works of art and allows her to communicate her most positive aspects of creativity, worshiping the highest values of which humanity prides itself.

The artist is impregnated with the concept that there is no art without man, but perhaps neither is man without art. It is a kind of soul breathing.

Dora Woda