Even a six year old can do this
حتى طفل يبلغ من العمر ست سنوات يمكنه القيام بذلك
אפילו ילד בן שש יכול לעשות את זה
شارون بازنير
שרון פזנר
Sharon Pazner
The exhibition "Even a six-year-old can do it" began with a cube-shaped concrete block and developed into a kind of city which is also a concrete modular assembly game.
Concrete - a material considered masculine, rough and strong, acquires delicate and precise characteristics with artist Sharon Pazner. This essence of this exhibition is the joy of childhood play, developed and perfected into an endeavor of art and creativity. This is the physical expression of the inner world of a girl who created her very own to the child, as part of the personal story, and at the same time to artists who walk the fine line between profession and passion in a capitalist society that sanctifies the result without giving importance to the process leading to it.
In her works, Sharon expresses a preoccupation with formal, verbal and emotional ideas. Despite, or rather thanks to the prominence of concrete in Israeli and international architecture, a feeling of familiarity arises with the material, its smell and its behavior. At the same time Sharon's ability to harness the concrete to serve abstract and concrete ideas in a wide array is extraordinary. The combination of the material with what looks like children's games – curcuit cars, an assembly game of buildings and a model of an airplane causes a certain feeling of alienation, even uncanniness.
In the gallery centerpiece, a car circuit, Sharon choses to observe the concept of “the way”, and refers to multiple expressions and meanings of the concept, challenges the physical-material appearance of the diverse "ways" in her work employing sharp, precise and thought-provoking humor. On the wall of the playroom a portrait of Benjamin Netanyahu which she created as a response to one of the Covid-closures intended to silence the voice of the protesters, as she saw it. In the zeitgeist, she places the portrait as if it were a wizard/ruler of who lives at the end of the yellow, or maybe grey, brick road of the magical world created. This provokes a restrained and less amused look at our way at our society, at the systems that lead the ways in which we move while the concrete space allegedly outlines the Israeli social/political architecture. Brutalism spreads and permeates relationships, communication, economy and fundamental values which are the essence of the Israeli experience.
Sharon writes about the exhibition:
"Ever since I can remember, I felt that boys get the good things in life and that girls have to settle for second rate. As a girl I played soccer, I hated dresses, dolls and the color pink, instead of ballet lessons I rode my bike, during recesses I played with the boys.
In middle school the situation got complicated, things became more sensitive. I could no longer play with the boys without getting comments from other girls who were my friends. They also tried to pressure me to dress in more feminine clothes. I was oppressed. In eighth grade, the boys and girls were separated in arts and craft classes, we were taught sewing while the boys studied technical drafting. I refused to participate in the sewing classes and to my regret I did not dare to ask to learn drafting with the boys. Once again, I was hurt by the unfairness- the boys, as usual, get the better option.
When I enrolled at the Bezalel Art and Design Academy, I recalled the boys technical drawings and chose to study architecture, where I always preferred to draft isometric drawing over perspectives. It was natural to me, probably due to my awe for it somewhere in the 8th grade.
Over time I neglected architecture for the sake of art - perhaps less useful, but the natural choice for me. This exhibition, much like my entire work, is a compensation - both for things that I refused to accept and for things I was sometimes denied as a girl. To me, art compensates for everyday difficulties, despite this I remember that I live in my own bubble inside a broader reality that sometimes threatens me and others. When people ask me about my art, my choice of concrete surprises them because of the connotations of the material: tough construction workers chiseling hard material, rough and masculine. But my work is small in scale; concrete starts as a liquid material and it takes on surprising nuances and textures. I don't chisel it, I mainly deal with ideas and molds. As I see it, concrete is one of those good things in life that I have adapted for myself. "
