Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Oct. 28--The way Aliza Olmert sees it, the world is walking on eggshells.
Olmert, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, uses cracked and broken eggs to make carefully constructed sculptures and a statement about how fragile life truly is.
A new exhibition of her artwork, "Aliza Olmert: Tikkun," begins Nov. 5 at the Nathan D. Rossen Museum Gallery at the Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center, 9801 Donna Klein Blvd. west of Boca Raton.
Tikkun is the Hebrew word for repair, and through her sculptures, the artist ponders how things that have been damaged can be made whole again.
Olmert, the daughter of Holocaust survivors who relocated to Israel, seems to question the effect of tragedy and change on the human condition.
"The wrongs that we have done to each other ... There is a lot of self-righteousness and very little empathy toward the tragedy of the other," Olmert told PBS' Frontline in March. "So only empathy could move it from the place it has been stuck."
Olmert, a mother of four who is also a playwright, filmmaker and children's social worker, was thrust onto the world scene when her husband stepped in as prime minister for the ailing Ariel Sharon last January.
"It's all an analogy," said filmmaker Tzipi Trope, a longtime friend of the artist who will be introducing the artwork during a private reception on Nov. 5. "Aliza takes the most fragile of objects, eggs, and asks how can we mend things that are so fragile? It's like what's happening in Israel with the Palestinians, the conflict."
Olmert's exhibit features five sculptures and numerous photographs of her work.
One sculpture shows crushed eggshells resembling confetti tangled in a mass of wire. In another, the eggs are bound with twine and pierced with PVC wire.
A group of photos shows a series of eggs cracked down the middle but held together by a safety pin.
"I'm overwhelmed by them all," said Helene Yentis, curator of the gallery. "They show that one moment you can be fine and the next something terrible can happen and your life falls apart. You can try to piece it back together, but it's not exactly the same again."
Ivette M. Yee can be reached at imyee@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6538.
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
