Avoda Ba'yadaim –
Avoda ba'eynaim

Kiryat Ha'amanim Gallery, Tiv'on, 2023

From the beginning of history, the ceramic material was used to create useful tools, alongside the creation of sculptural works for the needs of worship, play, experiential documentation or artistic expression. Today, as in the past, the dichotomous division prevails in the ceramic field (pottery, hand-building, castings, and sculpture) between the useful and the non-useful.

Along with the development of the field of design and industrialization and mass production processes, the boundaries between art and craft are blurred, and many products exist in the middle between craft, design and art.

The exhibition presents works selected from the annual exhibition of the Ceramics Symposium, which took place in December 2022 in Giv'at Haviva, under the sponsorship of the 'Ceramic & Crafts association of Israel'. The participants were invited to create ceramic objects, which touch on the issue of usefulness versus non-usefulness as a type of illusion/ suspension/ elimination of function as a message/ allegorical representation/ philosophical question or any other starting point.