Zadok Ben David

This last weekend my eldest son went away overnight with his youth club. I wanted to do something special with my youngest so that he didn't feel left out and would relish his time at home with Mummy and Daddy. As I have mentioned before, he really loves to draw and so a trip to The Tel Aviv Museum of Art seemed like a good idea. A place where he and I could perhaps sketch and enjoy looking at the art together.
I have to admit that my son, being seven years old, was underwhelmed by my idea at first. I suspect that a suggested trip to a fairground would have been a more popular choice! However, he warmed up to the idea when I took out my own sketchbook at the museum and started drawing and soon he was sitting alongside me sketching away. He drew a lot of attention and one lady even commented to me that she thought he had great talent.
After some time we decided to pack up our books and wander a little and this is where the great surprise of the day awaited us! At the entrance to the museum we had wondered why the queues were pretty long, especially on an unseasonably warm February day. Walking into one one particular gallery, we soon worked out why!

The exhibition we were greeted with featured the work of the Israeli artist Zadok Ben David. Extending over two halls, we were equally thrilled by his single sculptures - steel cutouts of figures whose bodies are an image of branches and foliage, and of trees whose foliage is a silhouette of human activity - and his truly breathtaking sculpture installation, titled 'Blackfield'.
The 'Blackfield' installation presents over 20,000 steel cutouts of plants and flowers in two entirely different ways. Entering the hall you are greeted with a bed of sand housing thousands of tiny black steel plants, but, as you walk through the room something magical happens. The colours on the flowers change. From one side of the room the paper-thin pieces are black. Yet from the opposite side, they are transformed into a riot of colour, Ben David having painted their second sides in brilliant purples, reds, greens and blues.

The artist has said that he sees the black side as a starting point but definitely not an ending point, that this piece is about life and death and carries great optimism.

Whatever the interpretation, my husband, son and I were all struck by this incredible exhibition, though my son did declare it "too hard to draw"! If any Israeli readers of my blog are able to get to The Tel Aviv Museum of Art before the exhibition closing date of February 27, I highly recommend a visit.