It seems to me that the concept the "Real" (le R?el) in the work of the French psychoanalyst
Jacques Lacan may offer a great deal toward the understanding of large segments of the
intelligent and unique creations by the artist Hedva Atlas Ben-David. Through the agency of
the "Real," Lacan seeks to signify that which is not included in the conscious verbal phrasing,
but strongly affects or determines the mental reality of the subject or that of a community
of subjects. For instance: for each of us, the unconscious is the "Real"—it determines our
relationship with ourselves, with others, as well as the process by which we shape our world.
But in fact, if we extend Lacan's concept a bit further, even that which is conscious but not
considered, or not discussed because tabooed and/or avoided, is also the "Real."
In Hedva's last two series of paintings, the "Real" takes on two forms. In the earlier
series, the "Real" is a naked teacher among school kids, in class, in a yearbook photograph,
and so on. The series was shown in the Jerusalem Artists House in 2011, in an exhibit titled:
"Group Photograph with a Teacher," curated by Tali Tamir. In the current series, the "Real" is
the image of the vulture, repeated in all the paintings. The naked teacher represents all that
is not included in the conventional image of the teacher and in the normal exchanges
between her and the pupils. The naked teacher is the naked truth one cannot and is not
allowed to teach within the didactic directive of the Education Ministry. For instance, the
teacher teaches homeland songs, but the truth about the homeland and about the love for
the homeland is not to be articulated. The "Real" is denied, repressed, and deferred in the
formal instruction designed for the students and that often entails a simplistic and onedimensional
indoctrination. The homeland, and the love for it, as presented to the children
and youth, are elements in a naive and misleading fairytale, designed, among other aims, to
transform the young into an army of the people, willing to sacrifice its life for the homeland.
As noted above, in the current series, exhibited in the Tova Osman's Gallery, the
"Real" is the vulture. The vulture is a powerful symbol, comprising many archetypical facets,
and Hedva's work addresses the primary among them. The style of the paintings is to
present the vulture as a dark and cruel bird that evokes thoughts about death, since it feeds
mostly on cadavers. The vulture also appears in her work as an image of the bad mother—
Mother-Earth devouring all that's alive. This image is crystallized when the vulture is drawn
as a Miriam-like silhouette from the Piet?, as the vulture carries in its arms her crucified son.
The ancient Egyptians saw the vulture as goddess-bird – Nekhbet – who represents
the Great Mother, both in her positive and negative aspects: on the one hand, the unique
devotion of the female vulture, protecting her young; and, on the other, the vulture's kinship
with death, consuming cadavers. And yet, it seems that the vulture in Hedva's latest
paintings depicts only the negative aspect of the Great Mother—representing, in great
morbidity, cruelty and death. The "Real" here is the cruel, unmitigated, and the ever-denied
specter of our death. Hedva's vulture is very proximate to the grotesque world of vultures in
Goya's surreal and very impressive etchings. Likewise, looking at Hedva's paintings, it is
impossible not to recall the dangerous vulture that represents a primeval, castrating mother
in Freud's renowned essay about Leonardo da Vinci.
Hedva's methods of representation preserve her affinity to a child's world evident in
her previous series. In this series as well, the paintings bring to mind comic-book for
children, illustrations and animation films, drawn in a bleak and surreal register, perhaps
even depressive and menacing. A few of her paintings remind me of Federico Fellini's surreal
and very Jungian world when touching on his childhood. Hedva's dependence on this
painterly plane is quite daring in our parts because of the "ban" that ruled here for many
years, informed by the influence of the Rafi Lavi's school regarding narrative art. In any case,
the narrative in Hedva's work also belongs to the "Real." Her paintings are the outcome of
the inevitable and mostly unexpressed understanding that our lives are always grounded in
narratives that we, or others, create about ourselves. There's no life outside the narrative.
Hedva's affinity to the world of comics for children must also be understood as a
direct effect of her many years as an elementary-school teacher before she turned to
painting. To this we must also add the child's spirit that still animates her today for various
complex reasons. It is clear that if the vulture is the archetypical symbol of the Great
Mother, then the vulture necessarily has a child or children. The relationship between
mother-and-daughter in Hedva's paintings could be the subject of fascinating studies.
As noted, the morbidity in Hedva's work validates her vulture. But it is important to
remember that the vulture as Great Mother relates not only to death but to rebirth as well.
The vulture not only safeguards its offspring but is also viewed as the master of
reincarnation: as it consumes the cadaver, dead matter turns to living matter in its body.
Let's hope that, unwittingly, Hedva's vulture also represents the ability to soar in altitudes
and so attain a wide and sharp outlook—a boundless field of vision. I believe that her age,
too, now grants her a unique perspective.
Hedva's style imparts deep emotional and insightful messages beyond the presence
of particular symbols. With a gifted hand, she brings to light images from the darkest
chambers of the heart. All the figures she depicts bear within them innocence, pain, and
illusion stamped by fate. Every one of her figures packs a remarkable measure of an inner
self. The color black in her work is very colorful, and the spotting of color here and there
only intensifies its richness and vibrancy. She draws with the ease of one who distractedly
traces with her pen the fantasies flowing from her soul. One wishes to add that the vulture
represented in her paintings as a divine being that creates and kills is also the pen with
which the artist draws—creating and effacing.
Mordechai Geldman
Translated by Tsipi Keller
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