Ronit Shany

Born in Haifa, 1950
Lives and works in Tel Aviv

Ronit Shany turns for inspiration to Annette Messager, who has fascinated her for many years, and combines certain elements of her work with the photographs and personal story of her own sister, Dror Amit. She covers the walls with photographs taken by her sister and combines them with words she wrote, which are repeated over and over. These words and images are positioned alongside photographs, small paintings, and a text written by Shany herself. This ensemble comes together to form a single, delicate installation that is simultaneously suffused with a sense of suffocation and weightiness, while melding together the traces of three women's creative endeavors.


Dror Amit

1944, Haifa
2012, Ramat Gan

Dror Amit (Ronit Shany's sister) was born and raised in Haifa. She completed a Masters degree in chemistry at the Technnion - Israel Institute of Technology, and worked as a medical propagandist. She married, gave birth to a son, and later divorced. In her twenties she was diagnosed with depression and was treated with medication, while continuing to work and care for her son. As an amateur photographer, she often photographed the plants growing in her home, which she cared for with great devotion. At the same time she tried, for different reasons, to photograph a neighbor who threatened her, while he was out in the garden during the day or at night. In August 2012, after returning home following several months of hospitalization for psychiatric treatment, she was found dead in her apartment.


Annette Messager

Born in France, 1934
Lives and works in Malakoff, France

Annette Messager is one of the most important artists active in France since the 1970s. She is identified above all with soft sculptures resembling cloth animals and toys, and with large-scale installations characterized by a mysterious and sensual movement. The creatures she forms, using techniques such as sewing and knitting, appear to have been inspired by children's stories, and are simultaneously humorous and monstrous. In other works, she transforms entire walls into "embroidered" supports composed of words and photographs. The texts written on the wall resemble lines of ants that delineate a trajectory of walking and writing, the story of a life.