Artist’s statement 2021

With a background in painting and drawing, I treat the photograph as raw material, and do not attempt to ‘represent reality’. Much of my work leans towards the abstract, attempting to blur any sense of scale, turning images into landscapes with textures and spaces I can get lost in. What I seek are the associations and raw sensations an image arouses.

As a photographer, it is the light – especially the natural light – that awakens my desires and prompts me to capture the magic, particularly as I mostly photograph while hiking and trekking off the beaten track.

I seek to go beyond the object, to ‘see’ with all my senses, searching for the interstices, the negative spaces, the “not-to-be-seen” - an attitude stemming from my feminist orientation against objectifying the female body, and ultimately, against objectifying anything. In the rare occasion when I do photograph other people, it is only when I feel we share an intimate dialogue.

Bio:

Born in Curaçao (into a photographic family), I went to college in Boston and have been living in Jerusalem since 1970. (Consequently,) I dance the tumba in Papiamentu, sing in Spanish, count in Dutch (my first literary language), write creative nonfiction and poetry in English, protest the Israeli occupation of Palestine in Hebrew, try to learn spoken Arabic, and feel at home (only) in the in-between.

Much of my writing is inspired by my hiking and traveling (in the in-between), see my writings here, under JOURNEYS: http://www.ritamendesflohr.com/words#/journeysinliminalspace (password required)

or by my background in (between) architecture and sociology (my MA thesis at the Hebrew University was a participant observation study of unattached (in-between) youth in the in-between spaces of Jerusalem courtyards). My book House Without Doors, inspired by my study of architecture at the Bezalel Academy of Art, is an socio-architectural memoir of my childhood in Curaçao (see http://www.ritamendesflohr.com/house-without-doors/) and was published in Tel Aviv in 2012, in Hebrew translation. 

In the early nineteen-nineties, I became active as a visual artist (painting and drawing), exhibiting in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I am the co-founder of Antea, a multi-cultural feminist art gallery in Jerusalem and served as its director and principal curator from 1998 to 2010. Today, my medium is photography, particularly, the interplay between photography and words. I am a member of the artists’ cooperative gallery Agripas 12, in Jerusalem, the venue of three of my recent solo exhibits, “Persephone” (2022 - see https://www.ritamendesflohr.com/persephone/), “Black Sabres” (2020) and “Latent Image” (2018.) (see under PHOTOGRAPHY for the latter two.)

Throughout my over fifty years in Jerusalem, I have been active in various organizations against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, and more recently, started to photograph while participating in direct action outings. (see BARRED LANDSCAPES under WORDS) My thoughts about the dilemmas of art and activism, can be read in the link below.

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Publications: 

PROSE AND POETRY:

- “Photographers’ (Grand) Daughter” - July 2024 on my photographic lineage and how it contributed to my artistic development https://rozenbergquarterly.com/photographers-grand-daughter/

“Speaking Papiamentu - On Reconnecting to my Native Tongue” in Rosenberg Quarterly, March, 2024  https://rozenbergquarterly.com/speaking-papiamentu-on-re-connecting-to-my-native-tongue/

“Swim for the Dark Spots” in Persimmon Tree, December 2023 Swim for the Dark Spots – Persimmon Tree

In Memoriam - Eva Abraham vd Mark, https://werkgroepcaraibischeletteren.nl/in-memoriam-eva-abraham-van-der-mark/?fbclid=IwAR2F1l-xJuxV80p2pBTL5Nd5h7hjRya2jcCfZPufCC8bSO-ASc5UyEfm9N4

Am I OK? a letter to friends after October 7, 2023 Am I Okay? — The Global Lehrhaus (thelehrhaus.org)

“The Secret Annex” in the March 2023 issue of Cleaver Magazine. https://www.cleavermagazine.com/secret-annex-flohr/

“A Place of Anchoring” in About Place Journal, May 2022  Rita Mendes-Flohr – Navigations: A Place for Peace – About Place Journal

- “The Old Cemetery” - in Arc 29, Journal of The Israel Association of Writers in English, issue on Community and Complexity, Tel Aviv, 2022

- “Arctic Reveries: Reflections on Trekking in Eastern Greenland” , in Wild Roof Journal, issue 12, January 2022 https://wildroofjournal.com/issue-12-rita-mendes-floh/?fbclid=IwAR0g6d1-mjn6UsMZTcCABAVviGargOzEddk-qu5BE5Lwo2mZkWBM5fCQMDo

-”Mondi of the Mind”, in Kristòf magazine, 2020, Volume XXI-1-

-”Triage/Waiting for Corona” in Persimmon Tree, April 2020 https://persimmontree.org/spring-2020/corona-2-prose/-

-”House without Doors” - in Hebrew translation, 2012, Tel Aviv, Sifrei Iton 77, (a novel based on my childhood in Curaçao) http://housewithoutdoors.blogspot.co.il/  בית ללא דלתות -ספרי עותון 77, תל אביב, 2012

- three poems with four photographs in the Fall 2016 issue of Hawai'i Review - #85. (Netherworld, Eurydice in the Galilee and Fishing Stones)

- of these, Fishing Stones, and a photograph from the Gorges series, can be accessed online: http://hawaiireview.org/poetry/2017/1/2/rita-mendes-flohr-fishing-stones

About my VISUAL ART

- “Art and Activism: Dilemma, Dialectic, Duet?” in Palestine Israel Journal, Feb. 2021 https://www.pij.org/articles/2073/art-and-activism-dilemma-dialectic-duet

- a review of my photography exhibit “Latent Image” by Barbara Gingold, in Times of Israel - blogs: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/wet-and-wild-rita-mendes-flohr-at-agripas-12-gallery/

a review of my exhibit Black Sabres - by Peggy Cidor, in the Jerusalem Post, August 13, 2020: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/black-sabras-new-exhibition-shows-art-and-social-commitment-638491?fbclid=IwAR0TKcmzEw2dp6orfoHyrbSmpWOd-q_F2X971M7WmXpnsXmL67a0anOYJdg

- a slideshow of my desert photos appeared in the journal Persimmon Tree:  http://www.persimmontree.org/v2/summer-2016/rita-mendes-flohr-gorge-from-within

ART EXHIBITS AND CURATORSHIP:

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

-2022 – Persephone – Goddess of the Netherworld and of Regeneration, (photography and installation), Agripas 12 Gallery, curated by Doron Adar

-2020 Black Sabres – Inner Journeys in a Burning Reality (photography and installation) – Agripas                          12 Gallery, curated by Rina Peled

- 2018 Latent Image (photography and installation), Agripas 12 Gallery, curated by Doron                               Adar 

- 2010 Where Secrets Hide – (photography) – Bloemhof Gallery, Curaçao

- 2009 Memory and Erasure – works on paper, Antea Gallery

- 1994 Nude - from the Inside, mixed media works on paper, Jerusalem Artists' House

- 1992 A Room of her own, Sara Konforty Gallery, Jaffa, curated by Dafna Naor

 - 1990 Works on Paper, Jerusalem Artists' House, Jerusalem, Israel, 1990.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)

-2024 - Like a Scarlet Thread (as part of the Jerusalem Biannale) curated by Dveer Shaked, at Agripas 12 Gallery, Jerusalem

- 2024 - Anima Mundi - art inspired by CG Jung, curated by Gabi Yair, at the TEO Center for Art and Culture, Herzliya. Exhibit initiated by Adi Eliel Leshem

-2024 - Beyond and Through Paper, Agripas 12 Gallery, curated by Loti Gombosh

- 2023 - Continuing (Agripas 12 response to Oct 7 and the Gaza war - curated by Oded Zeidel and Rina Peled

-2022 – Ma’aseh b’merhav - curator Nava Barzilai, Agripas 12,

-2022 - Around the Corner – curated by Gabi Yair at Modiin

-2021 - Neosent – at Agripas 12 Gallery, curated by Lena Seidel and Sascha Okun

-2019 – The Salon on Agripas Street, curated by Rina Peled and Max Epstein

-2019 – Her Dress, Her Symbol- Antea Revisited – curated by Nomi Tannhauser and Rita           Mendes-Flohr, Agripas 12 Gallery and Marie Gallery

-2019 – Rashomon (drawing)– curated by Bitya Rosenak and Gabi Yair at Agripas 12,

-2019 – Agripas 12 Artists’ Book - chapter III – at Fresh Paint, Tel Aviv, curator Hagai Segev

-2018 – Agripas 12 Artists’ Book chapter II Makom l’Omanut, Tel Aviv curator Sh. Averbuch

-2018 – Agripas 12 Artists’ Book chapter I, Agripas 12 Gallery, curator Shosh Averbuch

-2018 – My Second Childhood – YMCA gallery, curator Bitya Rosenak

-2017 - Four – (photography) Jerusalem Theater, curated by Doron Adar

-2005 - Reshamim II – (drawing) The Jerusalem Artists’ House, curated by Dror Burstein

-1994 - Beyond Visual, Art Focus exhibit, curated by Tsippi Weizman, Antea Gallery

-1994 - From Within, Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan, curated by Rivka Mayer

               -1990 - New Members, Jerusalem Artists' House, Jerusalem, Israel, 1990.

CURATORSHIP:

- 2023 Sara Alimi: A Black Woman Wants to Fly - an exhibit in her memory, curated together with Parvin Schmueli-Buchnik and Yoram Blumenkrantz, at Agripas 12 gallery, Jerusalem

- 2019 Her Dress, her Symbol- Antea Revisited – with 100 artists – co-curated with Nomi Tannhauser at Agripas 12 and Marie galleries, Jerusalem 

- 2000 Achoti/ Sister: Mizrahi Women Artists in Israel –with Shula Keshet, initiated and produced by Antea Gallery at The Jerusalem Artists’ House.

- 1998-2009 over 40 exhibits at the Antea Gallery, among the artists exhibited: Khen Shish, Hanan Abu Hussein, Orna Millo, Tova Berlinski, Shirley Faktor, Lena Zeidel, Rina Peled, Neta Elkayam Leora Wise.

among the Antea group exhibits: 

- 2008 Antea Darom, Antea artists at the Kaye College in Beersheva - curated together with Nomi Tannhauser – at the invitation of the gallery curator Israel Rabinowitz

- 2005 -“…and turn into a single scream” - Women and Human Rights during Armed Conflict, in cooperation with ACRI - the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, December, 2005 at the Antea Gallery, with Ronit Piso

TO CONTACT ME write to ritme4@gmail.com

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