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ABSTRACT
This article looks at images of wildflowers in contemporary Israeli art and their evolution in Israel's visual cultural. Wildflowers were regarded a part of the Zionist ideology in strengthening the connection of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel. They served as “cultural objects’ that contributed to shaping national identity by appearing on stamps, bank notes, in official Zionist publications and in botanical guidebooks. The article examines how contemporary Israeli artists relate to this tradition by looking at the artworks of six contemporary Israeli Jewish artists, using both visual analysis and in-depth interviews with the artists. The findings indicate that contemporary artists conduct a complex dialogue with the wildflowers and challenge their national symbolism. The images reflect an ambivalent relationship that includes attachment and belonging alongside discomfort and criticism.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u.
2 Grossman, “Ha'kesher Yaldei Ha'aretz Ha'gola,” 128.
3 Sheffi and First, “Israeli Landscape Flora Banknotes,” 191.
4 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 261; Golan, Miniyut Ve'zehut B'sifrut Ha'ivrit.
5 Rose, Visual Methodologies.
6 Gillerman, “Tziurei Ha'tzmachim Moshe Kashi”.
7 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 277.
8 Prominent exhibitions featuring plants in recent years: Dam Hakalanit Ve'ketem Ha'karkom; Gur-Lavy (Karni), Mi'februar ad May; Harubi, Shirat Ha'asabim; de Vries, Akuvit Ha'galgal Ha'asabim Ha'raim; Rabinowitz, Reshumim Me'ha'wadi; Magia Naturalis; Hai, Tzomeach, Domem; Cohen, Perachim Be'shachor U'bekachol; Gur-Lavy (Karni), Flora Palestina; Sonnenschein, Pirchei Bar Ve'charakim Yisrael; Abramson, Botanika; Magdirim; Kashi, A Cappella; Floriografia; Shiur Moledet: Botanika B'omanut; Gersh, Eretz Shavririt; Rakafot: Tzomeach, Makom, Mashal; Tel Hai v'Tzomeach
9 Lash, Sociology of Postmodernism, 5.
10 Zehavi, Tzimchei Bar B'albumei Mazkarot.
11 Lash, Sociology of Postmodernism, 28.
12 Grossman, “Ha'kesher Yaldei Ha'aretz Ha'gola,” 128; Furst, Campaign Save Israel's Flowers.
13 Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image, 273.
14 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u
15 Wagner, The Invention of Culture, 108.
16 Tanach – the Hebrew Bible; Mishna - the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions - the Oral Torah; Talmud - record of rabbinic debates in the second to fifth centuries BCE on the teachings of the Torah.
17 Rosenberg, “How Hebrew Names,” 5.
18 Sperber, “Ha'yahadut Ve'ha'islam Omaniyot Datiyot,” 91.
19 Memmi, “Portrait of the Colonizer,” 54.
20 Memmi, “Portrait of the Colonizer,” 59.
21 Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape, 1.
22 Marnin-Distelfeld, “Images of Wild Flowers,” 181.
23 Rosen, Omanim Israelim Chokrim Ha’teva.
24 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 264; Hirschfeld, “Botanical Epiphany,” 20.
25 Ben Ari, “Botanical Artists Science Aesthetics,” 603.
26 Furst, “Morphology of Cultural Transformation,” 9; Zehavi, Dried Wild Plants.
27 Grossman, Greetings with a Flower, 129.
28 Dahl, “Wildflowers, Nationalism Law Commons,” 281; Elian, “War Visual Language Flowers,” 234.
29 Hirschfeld, “Botanical Epiphany,” 29; Oren, “Culture, Nationality and Inspiration,” 22.
30 Chacham, “Chadrei Teval Ve'omanut B'gimnasia,” 56.
31 Manor Friedman, The Botanist's Brush, 7.
32 Hirschfeld, “Botanical Epiphany,” 29; Oren, “Culture, Nationality and Inspiration,” 23; Rosenberg, “How Hebrew Names”.
33 Marnin-Distelfeld, “Images of Wild Flowers,” 184.
34 Hirschfeld, “Botanical Epiphany,” 29.
35 Marnin-Distelfels and Gorney, “Why Draw Flowers?”
36 Avigad, Merchakim Krovim: Autobiografia, 125.
37 Grossman, “Greetings with a Flower,” 130; Furst, “Morphology of Cultural Transformation”.
38 Furst, “Morphology of Cultural Transformation,” 14.
39 Zerubavel, “Transhistorical Encounters Israel,” 117.
40 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 266; Shalmon, Pirchei Artzenu B'onatam; Kipnis, Prachai Tzmachai.
41 Sheffi and First, “Israeli Landscape Flora Banknotes,” 191.
42 Billig, Banal Nationalism, 15.
43 Furst, “Morphology of Cultural Transformation”.
44 First Hebrew High School in Israel.
45 Chacham, “Chadrei Teval Ve'omanut B'gimnasia,” 54.
46 Yediat Haaretz. Literally - 'Knowing the Land of Israel', also a school subject.
47 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 262, 267; Golan, Masculinity, Femininity Burden Identity, 78; Assaf, Perachim Meyubashim Mi'har Sinai.
48 Avoteinu Shorashim/Ve'anachnu Ha'prachim […]
49 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 270.
50 Naor, Little Red Flower Symbol.
51 Abufarha, “Land of Symbols”.
52 Abufarha, “Land of Symbols,” 360.
53 Riba, “This is how the war in Gaza raised the profile of Palestinian art”.
54 Agbaria, “Ttzimchei Hama'achal Haganat Ha’tzomeach,” 501
55 Agbaria, “Ttzimchei Hama'achal Haganat Ha’tzomeach,” 497.
56 Ginott, https://www.shaiginott.net/books
57 Lash, Sociology of Postmodernism
58 Rosen, Artist Researcher of Nature.
59 Marnin-Distelfeld and Carmel Hakim, “An Art of a Woman,” 134.
60 Interview with the artist, March 2018.
61 Interview with the artist, March 2018.
62 Bartosh, Pirchei Eretz Yisrael, 19.
63 Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image.
64 Ifergan, Wildflowers Insects in Israel.
65 Marnin-Distelfeld and Carmel Hakim, “An Art of a Woman,” 132.
66 Interview with the artist, April 2019.
67 Gal, “Jewish Israeli New-Media Art,” 21.
68 Interview with the artist, April 2019.
69 Memmi, “Portrait of the Colonizer,” 56.
70 The earliest I found is dated from 1978.
71 Ranunculus Asiaticus / Persian Buttercup.
72 Gordon, “Fragmented Flora,” 6.
73 Gordon, “Fragmented Flora,” 6.
74 Zohary and Feinbrun, Tzimchiyat Eretz Yisrael: Ikonografia.
75 Heilbronner, Citation1967 Shel Larry Abramson, 106; Abramson, Gallery Talk.
76 Zerubavel, The Sociology of Irrelevance, 23, 27.
77 Zerubavel, Hidden in Plain Sight, 63.
78 Heilbronner, Larry Abramson's 1967.
79 Memmi, “Portrait of the Colonizer,” 55.
80 Interview with the artist, April 2016.
81 Guilat, “Mapot Nofiot Ve'she'elat Ha’territotia,” 71.
82 Slyomovics, Arab Jew Palestinian Village.
83 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 267.
84 Interview with the artist, May 2019.
85 Slyomovics, The Object of Memory, 1.
86 Slyomovics, The Object of Memory, 8.
87 Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape, 13.
88 Werner, Esther Cohen's Exhibition.
89 White Keter PLastic.
90 Luzia, Nekudat Hatchala Optimit.
91 Luzia, “Ori Gersht Shoots Flowers”.
92 Billig, Banal Nationalism.
93 Luzia, “Ori Gersht Shoots Flowers”.
94 Interview with the artist, May 2019.
95 Naor, Blood of the Maccabees.
96 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 271.
97 Elian, “War Visual Language Flowers,” 234.
98 Mishory, Shuru habitu ve’re’u, 272.
99 Hai Rakafot. The number 18 is the numerical value of the Hebrew letter het-yud - חי – the Hebrew word for 'alive'.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld
Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld, Ph.D is a visual culture and art researcher and a curator. She is a senior faculty member at the department of art, literature and music in Zefat Academic College, Israel and the head of the arts department at Oranim college of education. She teaches art history and art theory classes and she is a curator of exhibitions at Oranim gallery and elsewhere. Her studies focus on Israeli visual culture (past and present), art and gender, art of second generation Holocaust survivors, contemporary Jewish and Arab women artists in Israel, sociology of art and art as an educational practice.