WOMAN OF THE POTS | adinabaron

WOMAN OF THE POTS, 1990-1991

A Woman of the Pots: performance and the film

1991, 23 mins.

starring: Adina Bar-On, Daniel Davis, [Shahar Davis, Yasmin Davis]

director: Naomi Perlov

Text from the film's cover:

"Adina Bar-On, one of the first Performance artists in Israel, presents her metaphorically conceived autobiographical story, done in collabaration with her husband, the potter Daniel Davis, and their two children .

By means of humour versus pathos, the secularity of Tel Aviv versus religious emotional intensities, everyday life versus ritual, the family's ambivalent relationship with its dwelling-place and 'neighbourhood' takes shape from the authentic viewpoint of the woman/artist.

The film is based on the Performance "A Woman of the Pots" held at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1990."

In "A Woman of the Pots", Bar-On began a process of parting from the dimentions of the "Acconcian dilemmas", and in the place of these there returned questions that appear more minor, touching upon contexts of everyday life, the family and the neighborhood. (Idit Porat)

Woman of the pots
A description of the Performance

In this show, a Tel-Aviv couple, both artists, present a work that deals with their lives as creators, as marriage partners, and as parents. Each of them brings the fruit of his her art and mounts a complex of forms in real time and space that interacts
with the complex brought by the other artist to create a total complex which also includes a video representation of occurrences in the past that are connected with the presentation of the show. They conceived the idea of the show together. An immediate contrast appears between the intellectual and feminine dimensions of Bar-on's art and the sensual and
phallic chdracter of the pots created by Davis. Bar-on creates and directs a performance in which she appears in the central role, with actors and the couple's children. Her performance-tools and scenes of body movements and vocal passages, which operate on several levels. The scenes of movement represent ways of expressing emotions, which either develop into an interpretative sequence, or are cut short to create a static visual image define areas in the show space; manipulate objects in various contexts; and constitute direct gestures in the show's present. In the vocal sphere, Bar-on uses the language of speech to tell a personal story. creates

several gibberish- languages; and builds phonetic sequences which range between the musical and the theatrical, and between lyric expression and representation of familiar modes of expression. The actors produce an image of a group presence identifiable with a culture, and function as assistants in the progress of events. Davis created the pots, which range in height from 30 to 150 cm., and installs them in the show space. The pots create a volume of immobile and silent images opposite Bar-on's volume of motion and sound. But the silence of the standing pots reveals other oppositions, the movement that can be seen in it when looked at closely
for a while, an the sounds produced from it by means of percussion. A pot is a multi-functional thing. Since ancient times, humans have used pots for everyday, real-time needs, and for ritual, symbolic purposes. A pot is constructed of a form that opens and a form that covers. The attempt to open up is an aspiration for a better future, while sitting under the lid is a closing of an unrevealed past. [n the pot there is tension between the color of the clay and the color that the potter adds, which connects to the tension between dark and light, closed and open, negative and positive. To this, Davis adds another tension, between his desire to leave the pot naked and his decision to cover parts of it by glazing. He also makes a minimal use of iron, as expressive of a desire not to close himself in one material option only. The pots contain all these oppositions and so are symbolic of life.
The video was conceived and Filmed by Bar-On inside and outside the studio situated by the sea. In the video Davis are creates his art and plays with his two children. In a family collaboration and with the interweaving of attitudes above the performance is formed.

Precision: Shalmo Deshet.
Actor's: Zili A vni, Raya Ginzer, Roli Choen, Noga Nesher.
Children: Shahar Davis, Yasmin Davis.
Costume: Tali Ha'ievi
Video editor: Ayalet Heller

Writing by Dr. Richard Flanz 1990