MERAV STARK

Merav Stark (born in Mishmar HaEmek in 1958), is an artist and photographer. She is married and the mother of four children, and lives in Maccabim. She earned her PhD in microbiology and molecular genetics and worked as a researcher in her field. A diagnosis of breast cancer left her unable to work in biotechnology. Inspired by her father, she delved into photography as a means of artistic expression and directed a photography club in Modi’in for many years. Her work, exhibited widely, is the outcome of her in-depth investigation of the subjects of family life in Israeli society and the digital environment. In her words: "Family is a major component of my physical and emotional being. I was shaken when I lost my father, father-in-law and mother-in-law, who died during the same period. At that same time, we also celebrated my twin daughter’s wedding. My father was my partner in art, and so I lost not only a parent, but a mentor. I put aside my photography groups and projects to take a renewed look at my own life.”

Afterwards, Merav took a critical look at sensitive and intimate moments of bereavement and the loss of loved ones. She examined social and personal practices, the often-repeated phrases to comfort mourners, and the traditional texts and burial customs.

This is Merav’s first exhibit to include installations and objects. They help her unpack, discover and reveal concepts and processes of longstanding social conventions for coming to terms with death.  Concepts from her past as a researcher help her create a fascinating connection between the archaic and the innovative. The complex spectrum of emotions she felt during the Shiva (seven ritual days of mourning) are translated into expressions of resistance and defiance, pain, anger, and longing softened by cynicism and humor.

Pain is honored with soft decorative fabrics and cloth spread against the sharpness of stone, boxes and papers. The texts are not defined solely by their content, but the words symbolize the shift between minimalism and multiplicity, silence and unrelieved commotion.

In her work Father's Essence, a test tube with a DNA-like powder is placed on a pedestal and covered with a flowing velvet tablecloth that parallel to the concepts of ashes and temple. 

In Map of Condolences, she spreads out a thick array of conventional phrases automatically spoken at a Jewish condolence visit (Shiva).

The photograph of Grandma Ida’s Recipe was taken to challenge the conventional epitaphs that will last forever.

The phrases in The catalogue “Inspiration for Mourner” evoke a smile, even though the background of the pages are illustrated with tombstones. 

According to Jewish Law, the shirts that have been torn (in keeping with Jewish practice), are used by Merav to challenge the mourner to contain his grief until he is allowed to express it. 

Merav examined varied mourning customs in Israeli society with curiosity and special attention to the accepted norms.

She resists and rebels against the norms of social practices, and religious dictates, which she finds coercive and controlling by their nature.