Start A Portrait

Author: Drorit

illustration week TLV // The names of the Great Ones 7 // Drorit Kaplan // Curator: Hagit Peleg Rotem.

One building in Jaffa, built 7 years ago, is at the center of a video art exhibition during Illustration Week. In the exhibition “Shem HaGedolim 7” (The names of the Great Ones 7), Drorit Kaplan presents 10 portraits, which she created in digital painting and edited for videos. In each one of them a neighbor is documented, and to each of them she adds motifs and colors that represent their unique personality and lifestyle.

Kaplan paints on a digital board and edits each portrait into a short video art, which presents the painting in different moments, ranging from abstract to realistic, somewhat psychedelic.

The musician Dror Ben-Nathan composed an original soundtrack for each piece, according to the hints of the character’s personality and color palette. The result is a mosaic of portraits emerging before our eyes, displayed on 10 touch screens, in a beautiful space from the limestone structures of Old Jaffa.

The inspiration for the exhibition came from the special texture of good neighborly relations in a shared home, in a heterogeneous, Jewish and Arab community, which together crosses daily life, here lends a glass of sugar and there keeps the child for a moment

    The name of the street “The Name of the Great Ones” raises questions – after who is it named? Who are the great ones? and what is it that makes people “great”? The exhibition got its name inspired by the pompousness of the inscription, and it illuminates the name of a Jaffa Street with a degree of irony – portraits were used in the past to indicate status, power and prestige, the idea that led to the exhibition is based on the concept that perhaps just looking at a portrait of an ordinary person makes his character significant.

    illustration week TLV // The names of the Great Ones 7 // Drorit Kaplan // Curator: Hagit Peleg Rotem.

    One building in Jaffa, built 7 years ago, is at the center of a video art exhibition during Illustration Week. In the exhibition “Shem HaGedolim 7” (The names of the Great Ones 7), Drorit Kaplan presents 10 portraits, which she created in digital painting and edited for videos. In each one of them a neighbor is documented, and to each of them she adds motifs and colors that represent their unique personality and lifestyle.

    Kaplan paints on a digital board and edits each portrait into a short video art, which presents the painting in different moments, ranging from abstract to realistic, somewhat psychedelic.

    The musician Dror Ben-Nathan composed an original soundtrack for each piece, according to the hints of the character’s personality and color palette. The result is a mosaic of portraits emerging before our eyes, displayed on 10 touch screens, in a beautiful space from the limestone structures of Old Jaffa.

    The inspiration for the exhibition came from the special texture of good neighborly relations in a shared home, in a heterogeneous, Jewish and Arab community, which together crosses daily life, here lends a glass of sugar and there keeps the child for a moment

      The name of the street “The Name of the Great Ones” raises questions – after who is it named? Who are the great ones? and what is it that makes people “great”? The exhibition got its name inspired by the pompousness of the inscription, and it illuminates the name of a Jaffa Street with a degree of irony – portraits were used in the past to indicate status, power and prestige, the idea that led to the exhibition is based on the concept that perhaps just looking at a portrait of an ordinary person makes his character significant.

      Mako magazine published a very flattering article about my exhibition on TLV Illustration Week 2021

      “Drorit Kaplan illustrated portraits of her neighbors and created a spectacular view of contemporary Jaffa”

      “Kaplan’s descriptions depict an enviable reality, when she describes the mix of building occupants this reality even seems utopian”

      you can read more at the attached link

      https://www.mako.co.il/culture-books-and-theatre/Article-ab1c29ad27f2d71027.htm

      Magazine TimeOut chose me as one of the 10 recommended exhibitions of TLV Illustration Week 2021 !!

      “Political kicking instinctive and creative: Our 10 recommendations for Illustration Week” – Thats the quote from an article in Hebrew. I was selected by the magazine from over 70 exhibitions…. Great honor 🙂

      you can read more at the attached link

      https://timeout.co.il/%d7%94%d7%9e%d7%9c%d7%a6%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%9c%d7%a9%d7%91%d7%95%d7%a2-%d7%94%d7%90%d7%99%d7%95%d7%a8/

      About the exhibition:

      The title of the exhibition is based on my residential address in Jaffa – a new building built in the heart of the Givat Aliya neighborhood, 10 Arab and Jewish families setteled down in a new building in south Jaffa 6 years ago. Together they create a mosaic-portrait of the people of Jaffa – ordinary people, diverse but equal.

      The name of the street raises questions – who are “The Great Ones”, and what are their names? I look at my neighbors and want to present them as great people – each man in his own right. The exhibition got its name inspired by the pompousness of the inscription, and it illuminates the name of the Jaffa Street with a degree of irony.

      “The Name of the Great Ones/7” echoes the ability of a portrait to turn any person into a “great person” – to stay in front of a portrait of an ordinary person and being interest in his character, as a result, raises questions about legends and stories versus life itself.

      “Name of the Great Ones 7” is an exhibition of digital portraits of the building’s residents, representing a mosaic that crosses age, gender and religions of ordinary people. Against the background of the tension that erupts in Jaffa from time to time, and more recently, human relations and neighborhood are becoming even more important.

      Illustration Week TLV 2021 Here we come! #illuweek2021