Written by Noa Tal, Curator.
Neta’s wellspring of creativity is inexhaustible and, in addition to the wealth of imagery, the viewer will marvel at the high level of technique apparent in her work. With every technique that she employs, she demonstrates professionalism and mastery. For this exhibit, we have chosen to display works beginning from 1984 through 2002 – etchings and computer prints. Neta’s entry into the world of computers in 2002 also includes video work that she created in 2003 and makes up part of the exhibit.
Neta works in series, as do all artists working with prints… it is a type of rhythm, or thinking pattern, that takes over the artist and her personality throughout the process. From this perspective, one can understand the arrangement of Neta’s exhibit as an expression of thinking in series. We built the exhibit in the hall like an onion whose layers must be peeled from the outside inward.
The exhibit includes series of works that were made over the course of 20 years of creation. The works are displayed in batches of series like peeling layers that are revealed one after the next. The beginning of the exhibit is the spectacular surrounding garden viewed through glass windows into the hall and combines the series’ topics: plants and birds. The first mantle within the hall, on the two central walls: birds – etchings and the horses – computer prints on the glass wall with the windows: Fluid Dance, series of etchings.
In the left niche: a work of video art that shows how changes in images begin to slowly transform into something else, the metamorphosis. In the second niche, on the right, are hung a series of etchings, with images from nature that express the flow and movement that Neta has been working with in recent years. In the innermost layer of the exhibit: trees, shadows and birds. Neta’s shadow has broad and abstract metaphorical significance and the birds symbolize freedom, ascending to a higher plane, and the cyclical nature of life. Within the inner circle of the mantle, at the core of the exhibit – hang two series of computer drawings: friend – metamorphosis, pavilion – metamorphosis.
Neta’s distinct inclination to tell stories can be recognized throughout the duration of her creative work. The new works that were drawn using the computer – the series at the nucleus of the exhibit: friend – metamorphosis, pavilion – metamorphosis, each contain the story as a part of the work. In the early etchings, however, each work is a story unto itself, which ultimately ties back into the general concept. With the help of the computer, Neta has found a new way to express the narrative thread, the story built of associations. In the horses series (prints – computer drawings) we see released carousel horses within a story that has not yet been written – a story whose entirety is an associative collection of images in a dizzying gallop. Neta’s relationship to her work recalls the relationship between Pinocchio and Geppetto, or the puppet Coppelia and her creator, Coppelius, from Offenbach’s opera, “The Tales of Hoffman’, that he did not manage to finish. The real concern is not to fall in love with the technique or its products and lose control over the work. Neta has successfully continued to create new works, through use of new technique. Neta has artful command of digital media, and in her computer drawings has granted her old images freedom. Her palette is enriched by new and varied colors; the birds, carousel horses and plants, of which some have turned into colorful pavilions, have taken up the creator’s call and begun to dance… the colorful images float in the air. The story of each image and the changes it undergoes create the metamorphosis series. The topics that move like a thread through the etchings – flow, movement, cyclicality, continue to appear in the computer drawings. The digital technique, as opposed to the strenuous and complex work of etching, makes it possible to, change colors and shapes with a wave of the hand.
But where are the horses galloping? How will Neta catch the reins of the bounty of imagery and in which direction will she lead them? And particularly – who and what will she meet on this new journey? The reins are in her hands, the horses are already galloping, but … to where?