About my work

My fascination for flags has been growing each year. A flag can arouse both positive and negative feelings. It represents a national symbol used to express love for a country. However, it can also be misused for the intention of extreme nationalism. I am painting flags and as such they are becoming symbols in shape and colour. But their signification embodies more. The way I am painting, my flags are part of a process that enables me to cope with my emotions. It is both conscious and sub-conscious; it grows and exists alongside the artistic process.

In 1995 started my fascination for flags when I discovered a picture in a newspaper showing an Israeli flag burnt in a Palestinian demonstration. It touched me deeply because for me it meant a violation and a non-respect and pursuit for destruction of the values I love. I experienced the burning as a stamping on human rights in general and the Jewish people and the Jewish history in particular. This transgression pushed me to create paintings with flags. Painting made me more and more aware of the collective Jewish struggle as well as the ongoing pressure that this struggle and defense require. It aroused my personal interrogations on the past, the present and future: will this ongoing struggle persist or can a better cohabitation be designed between the Jews, Arabs and Arabic neighbouring countries. While painting I am trying to explore answers to these questions.

The fascination for flags brought me to the Tibetan prayer flags, the Tibetan culture and the Tibetans themselves. As they wave in the wind, prayer flags lift up and carry wishes for peace, good health and happiness. Appropriate colours of the prayer flags symbolize the elements of nature: air, water, earth and fire. The flags are fastened to specific places in nature such as trees or hung over rivers, but also on houses, temples and holy places. Special evens such as birth or death can be a reason to display flags. The intention of these religious flags and their signification are having a soul-stirring effect on me and do give me hope. Could flags also send wishes for peace throughout the world with regard to this Jewish-Palestinian conflict?

I am painting intuitively and spontaneously. The movement of my hand on canvas (or paper) in combination with colours and substance determines the result. In my work it is on canvas or on paper where the conflict is going on. I am using the Israeli and the Palestinian flag as symbol. Through my work I am trying to get grip on the true issue of this war and the direction where it is leading to.