אדריכלות ישראלית - גיליון 123

Architects Paint אדריכלותישראלית Architecture of Israel # 123 November 2020 94 | | Aric Schneider - Naked Reality Naked Model was the subject of the first lesson, on the first day, in the first year, in the first Faculty of Architecture in the first building of the Haifa Technion. The subject was taught by Prof. Paul Hoenich,entitled "Two-dimensional Design". However, the course received its third dimension due to the envy of the engineering students who called us "students who spend their days painting nudes". My eagerness about painting took on another dimension during my MA art Studies at the Pratt Institute at the end of the 70s’ – a time when post-minimalism dominated the scene and painting models was an integral part of the studies. Once the office I opened on my return to Israel was established, I caught the painting bug again: I participated in model workshops while creating critical artwork in response to a social situation, walking a parallel path between architectural reality and art work. As in architecture, I refer to my art work in terms of projects. My recent “12 Tribes” project refers to the extreme polarization that has recently taken place in Israeli reality. For this I used the image of a brain that changes color and form on a canvas in the shape of a skull; The "Mishmar" (The Guard) exhibition relates to my family who were among the founders of Mishmar Hayarden, a settlement that was occupied during the War of Independence and never rebuilt; the exhibition "Walking along the Beach" focused on random times of contemplation when walking long distances - sailing the fields of the mind. "Architecture of Death" came about following a visit to the extermination camps in Poland, constituting a painful, subjective view of the indifferent architects who designed them. The exhibition "Indifference" – criticizes Israeli society’s indifference through a series of paintings of The Three Monkeys – don’t see, don’t hear, don’t speak. art for food architects paint Rachel Ben Aharon Ziv Tidhar – living on a canvas I grew and matured in a carpet-like neighborhood in Dimona. A half-kilometer square, with clear, rigid and protective boundaries against the arid desert. A compound that withdraws into its startling alleyways, inner courtyards, and narrow, sensual, intimate lanes amongst the crowded houses. In my early days, I thought that planning airports and central stations was the peak of my professional ambitions; however, in time I returned "home", realizing that joy and wealth are "internal" – within the same sensual intimacy so lacking in fashionable, residential configurations. I left the carpet neighborhood a long time ago, but it has never left me. The half- kilometer square has since been replaced by fixed, meter-by-meter canvases. The edges are still rigid. The inside overwhelms and chafes at them, but never overflows. Ramified moment systems allow the eye precise penetration of the canvas, reminiscent of the lanes and alleyways of my childhood neighborhood. Intertwining internal axes twist and turn like the Kasbah of an ancient, mountain town. The eye occasionally encounters random, half-abstract figures. These are the tenants of my canvas “neighborhood”. Various, diverse, non-homogenous characters – some extreme, others withdrawn; some alien who come from different worlds. Astonishingly, everyone on the canvas lives in harmony with its neighbors, just like my old Dimona where people from North Africa or Asia lived alongside veteran Ashkenazis in dense, one-storey houses, as opposed to the alienation and emptiness of "Build Your Own Home" neighborhoods. The vivid colors of my paintings are also closely connected to the area in which I grew up. A cultural environment of contrasts against the backdrop of the Negev desert, like the differences in temperature between night and day, the bright light during the day in contrast to the profound darkness of night. The utter silence severed by an unusual sound. Monochrome houses are not really inherently “quiet” or “calm”, while color is an expression of emotional depth, very much like my paintings. If I could, I would move into my canvas neighborhood today. It’s just that at my age, living inside a painting would be a challenge for my back. Above: Architect Ziv Tidhar. Below: Architect Aric Schneider. אדריכל זיו תדהר. למעלה: אדריכל אריק שניידר. מתחת: