'Delusions of grandeur'

In her new exhibition, 'Delusions of grandeur', Ronit Yanizki presents 16 sculpted objects made using an Arts and Crafts technique: glued on wood and cardboard layers, with added "readymade" cloth, Styrofoam, balls, gilded leafs and flowers, dolls and toy soldiers. The whole set is then painted with the acrylic and inflating Tulip paints, which have become Yanizki's artistic trademark. At the front of each sculptured object Yanizki posts a magnifying glass that magnifies and empowers the message of her work.

"In her new exhibition, the artist Ronit Yanizki takes post modern folklore, typical of her previous six exhibitions, one step backwards and examines the creation of a feminine theme. The ruling narrative in these works is naturally, a return to childhood, but not to any form of naivety. Somewhere between mythological femininity and childish, immature femininity, Yanizki's presents a realistic, examining and critical perspective of woman's image as reflected in the cultural mirrors of a world managed by masculine codes", claims Erez Berzulik, in his texts for the exhibition.

Yanizki covers working surfaces with acrylic paints and inflating Tulip paints and then glues them with beads, dolls, toy animals and other items she collects. She fits and integrates these carefully selected objects into her works, thus creating a rich, expressive layered language. Gluing up the tiny objects and items in order to make the resulting combination into a clear statement takes Sisyphean effort. Yanizki's meticulous craft is taken as a private, ongoing ritual. It is a long process of dealing with small details, gathering items and combining them into new forms of artistic expression and meaning.

About the Works:

Big Eyes: On an upside-down triangular wooden background, Yanizki glued big eyes that gaze at the watcher with an examining look. Within a rectangular box there is wallpaper showing a variety of appetizing foods. A magnifying glass in front of the box magnifies the seductive scene and ridicules our chase after the never-satisfied world of opulence.

Masquerade: A black mask with a cigarette in its mouth glued in a wooden box. A magnifying glass in front of the box gives it an enigmatic look.

Larger Than Life: Yanizki glued small images of dancing women on a rectangular layer of wood. The magnifying glass in front heightens the staged event by presenting the dancers as shamans in a religious ceremony.

Pig Star: On the back wall of a cardboard box, Yanizki attached a shining green star with a pig on it. The magnifying glass at the front gives the non-kosher pig the status of a super star.

Birth of a Lesbian: Two straddling legs, pointed upwards, with a woman's head peeping out and announcing the "birth of a Lesbian". The statue is decorated with flowers and birds, to symbolize the happiness and excitement of the event.

At Eye Level: A rectangular box is divided into 4 chambers. In each chamber there is a mask attached to the upper wall, observing the scene that is going on in the chamber. The scenes are: a ballerina; an animal trainer; a storm at sea; birds. The magnifying glass facilitates a closer look at the scenes.

Urban War:  Soldiers in a war scene in a box, with a glass magnifying the event.

Cow by Cow: On the back of a wooden wheel a wallpaper scene from nature and the farm. In the foreground, cows roam the green pastures and on the other side a stork watches them.

Working Women: Inside a wooden box, Yanizki created a scene of working women. The magnifying glass in the front sharpens the scene and puts it in focus.

From Slavery to Freedom: Yanizki has created this piece as homage to the social revolution in Egypt. A mannequin jumps over the pyramids to express liberation and freedom.

Queen of Sheba: A black Styrofoam head decorated with golden flowers, butterflies and Christmas balls is glued into a box and set on a high pedestal. The colorful richness gives the image a royal appearance.

Witch Hunt: A Snow-White doll hangs on a string, while dwarfs surround her, giving a new interpretation to the legend. Snow-White posed in victim status, in a male chauvinist world that perceives her grasps her as either slave or asexual object.

Indian:  A red-faced mask in a cardboard box staring at us through a magnifying glass that gives it a non-interpreted, demonic look.

Hanging Gardens:  Cardboard cylinder and dried flowers, painted with acrylic paints, recreate the rich and precisely tangled texture of hanging gardens.

Barbie "Comes Out". A wooden "Fortune Wheel" with 4 round chambers tells the story of the mythological Barbie, who gains her freedom by losing the sweet image and declaring her sexuality and independence.

Yes We Can. Two brides, dressed in white and decorated with flowers and beads, stand on a wedding cake, happy and thrilled on their wedding day.

The precise composition which Yanizki chose to portray her works, at her studio in Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha, gives them a kaleidoscopic look, rich with symbols and images that take the spectator on a winding journey in time, to symbols and images derived from our everyday world.

Yanizki has become identified with her own characteristic figurative-folkloristic style. She uses this mode of expression to deliver lesbo-feminist and political messages. The innocence and naivety typical in her early works have given way in the new exhibition to a sharply sober irony.

Shimshon Crystal

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