In “Agripas 12” gallery, a new Installation art exhibition by the artist Sara Nina Meridor, accompanied by a musical piece written especially for it, by the voice artist Victoria Hanna. Original photographs: Doron Adar.

In modern hebrew, the phrase “Ma’aseTza’atzuim” means “the making of toys”. In the Bible, however, it refers to an “image-work”, in the King James translation, to the making of an icon for ritualistic purposes. King Solomon is said to have made the most sacred icon in ancient Jewish rituals, the Cherubim above the central sanctuary of the ancient temple: “And in the most holy house he made two cherubim of image-work” (Chronicles B ch.3 verse 10). The works of of Sarah Nina Meridor, the works are contemporary sacred “toys”, Jewish contemporary icons, created withe tools of our era.

The exhibition itself is an invitation to a ritual. She seduces the viewer to religious fervor, but also avoids  revealing “the face of God”. God’s Image”, the human body is abstracted to become raw material for a sacred object  for holy work and meditation, a living Jewish Icon. Sara Nina makes Mandalas and Calligraphy from photographed portraits of herself, from her personal body and her dresses. She alters a wedding dress with bloody red and mossy-green gown, oscillating between purity and impurity, abstract and concrete, between Pure and Black Magic. Her works revive the forgotten ritualistic aspect of a work of art, and invites viewers to look beyond the aesthetic experience, and use it as a means for an immediate personal transformation.