Sarah Avnin Ganisher
Through a variety of materials – fabrics, fibers, yarns – and embroidery, Sarah Avnin Ganisher brings her entire inner world into her works: childhood memories, fantastic and scary characters, but also concerns and personal content about more universal themes. In recent years, many works also revolve around the figure of her mother. But above all color is the key to her work: “I love color” she says “it is the essence of life for me”. Equally present is the use of words that reinforces and emphasizes the personal meaning of her works, sometimes becoming the work itself. Sarah Avnin Ganisher weaves and assimilates all the plots of her life: in her works, materials, colors and thoughts come together in a single narrative.
Born in Israel, the fourth daughter (she also has a brother) of a large Moroccan family who emigrated to the city of Ramla, at the age of 14 she chose to live in a Kibbutz and moved to Ginegar against the will of her parents. Here she grew up and joined the army, then moved, after her marriage, to the Kibbutz in Yift where she raised her children and where she became an educator in the regional school, teaching various subjects through art in various classes.
She learned to embroider from her older sisters as a child, then attending courses and workshops. She is a student of Gila Madar at Tel Hai College. Here she learns to dye yarns and to express herself in works that combine fabrics with other materials. Member of Kraft Israel, where she studied with Shulamit Levin, over the years she develops a unique personal style. In her works she almost exclusively uses the flat stitch, giving it different thickness and orientation, overlapping layers, using an abundance of colors. The inspiration sometimes starts from the material, other times from an idea and there is no lack of rethinking and project changes during construction. Her is an ongoing dialogue with materials that almost become a guide for the development of the work as it progresses.
Her just ended solo exhibition YOU PLANTED TEXTURES IN ME – title inspired by a Hebrew song – is a thank you for all that parents plant in us.
