There is something pastoral about the pieces on display in the Oman gallery, located in Romema, Jerusalem- deep in the “Hareidi” (Ultra Orthodox) quarters behind the central bus station. This community center inspires.
Oman is an arts training program whose goal it is to help mobilize the talents of the female Israeli ultra-orthodox community. Its uniqueness lies in its population, and taking a look at the collection of works the students produce reveals an internal creative life of a community that doesn’t generally have a stage. Recently, the school featured alumni work in a show titled “Hefetzâ€, a word with myriad meanings including object, wish, desire, delight, thing, wanting, and willing.
The innocence of the show is striking. The classical style paintings give reverence to moments of simplicity. A young girl braids her hair. A lace cloth napkin is painted as if leftover on a table after a Sabbath meal. The Jerusalemite Grandmother, in her cotton tunic and head covering, reads by daylight flowing from her porch. As an observer, I feel like I am wandering through a community of another century.
These works reveal a merging of old and new worlds. The three-dimensional works exemplify this better than other pieces, as a breaking from the traditional aesthetics reveal personal stories. One striking sculpture is a wire mesh figure wearing only the remnant draping of a wedding train. Slightly bent, exposed and translucent, it makes us wonder if this bride is the aftermath or the attempts at reweaving new beginnings. A copper Jewelry piece of a mother whose stroller is about her size hangs on hinges from a necklace chain and doesn’t stop moving. An impressive paper cutting, a traditional Judaic technique usually used in two dimensional work, builds a thigh high white palace sculpture called “So will be done to the man who finds favor in the Kings eyes,” taken from the story of Purim.
Similarly, the photography plays with light is like an attempt at revealing G-d through the lens. The image of branches blowing their gold leaves in the wind, the close up image of steps highlighted by sun and browned leaves, and the overexposed photograph of a woman in prayer all reflect on the small movements of spirit.
Rivkah Vardi, the director of the school, explained how the majority of the women come to learn art for the sake of art, contradicting the misnomer that traditional Jewish art is generally “practical†or ritual. To many women who come to study here, art is a means to express the soul. Hence, in the artwork a sense of serenity prevails.
What is most impressive in this show is what isn’t here. There is no attempt at “outdoing†art history, a popular contemporary motif from those who have studied it deeply. Further, there is no talk of politics, neither to the right nor to the left, as one finds in much of contemporary art in Israel. In its place is creativity as a pure tool to talk about the soul and turn the inside out. Some may say that the work is too “antique” for the contemporary art world. Others will say that it is a revival of a raw and meaningful form of the arts.