Janeth Hanapi, Master Weaver from the Philippines

One of the reasons I keep going back to Khutsot haYotser is because it’s a wonderful opportunity to meet and talk to artists from other countries. I love wandering around and asking artists about their work. Janeth Hanapi is a master weaver of tipo (also known as banig), mats woven from the leaves of the pandanus plant. She is a member of the Jama Mapun (“people of Mapun”). Mapun is a municipality in the province of Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines. She received recognition for her work by the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2012. She speaks some English but she was busy weaving most of the time.

Pandan leaves are harvested from wild plants. Only the young leaves are used, so that the plant can recover. They are cut into thin strips, dyed, and dried. The tipo mats are used for ceremonial purposes and as a floor covering under a mattress. Mary (Mary Rajelyn Javier-Busmente, architect, who helped plan and coordinate the exhibit) told  me that they can last for ten years with care.

This is the tipo that I bought.

I wish I knew how she does those colour changes on the diagonal! It would be really cool to weave strips of paper using this technique.

Lace from the Czech Republic

Jerusalem Arts & Crafts Fair 2013: Indian Woodworker, Mexican Beadwork

At first I thought this woodworker was working on leather. Then I saw that he was carving with a hammer and chisel. He’s using his toe to hold the plate-stand steady on the block. I noticed that when he was resting, he would put one leg on top of the other in a half-lotus or firelog position. He must be really flexible.

Very brave of him to hold the chisel for the boy with the hammer! I wonder how many fingernails he loses that way… 🙂

These Mexican seed bead necklaces look almost like needle-lace. I’d be afraid to wear them, because if a thread breaks, it can be quite a job repairing the piece, depending on how well anchored the threads are. Or maybe I would just hang one on a wall. They’re so beautiful! (Sigh–I know that I could make my own but I would never finish it.)

Jerusalem Arts & Crafts Fair 2013: Philippine Mat Weaver

This friendly weaver kept urging me to come closer to watch her work. Her hands were moving so quickly that I couldn’t take a decent photo, so I ended up making a video. She said that the small banig she was working on would be a wall hanging. The larger pieces, woven with coarser strands, are floor coverings.

Jerusalem Festival of Light 2013: Green Trail

This is the final round-up of photos I took at the Jerusalem Festival of Light.

Flower from the Universe, by Titia Ex. The “petals” of the flower changed colour and were reflected by the base.

Amir Zobel’s Fountain of Life was an interesting optical illusion. On the outside, it’s a squat plastic cylinder.

This is how it looks on the inside:

Guardian Angel (Maro Avrabou and Dimitri Xenakis). The watering cans are supposed to be like angels, with optical fibers pouring out of the spouts.

I Am a Harp (Eli Kaplan Wildmann and Shuli Oded) was an interactive installment. Recorded music was playing the background and you could make sounds with the electronic instruments by pressing the levers. The light tubes changed colours.

Luminaissance (Amaury Veron, Constance Pereira, Hortense Greneir, Louise Renault, Anaîs Shenck) looks like light boxes around palm trees, with roots painted on the outside.

Tree of Life (Heinz Kasper) was really underwhelming. If you click on the link to see the artist’s conception, it’s a little prettier but not much. Compared to the magical fairy tales video-mapping a couple years ago, this was a comedown. It’s a static projection of trees on the Damascus Gate.

Lotus Dome (Daan Roosegaarde) was in Zedekiah’s Cave, an ancient quarry under the Old City, so there was a queue to get in because the space is limited. Half an hour is a long time to wait for a disco ball. Oh, well, it was interesting to see how they’d lit up different parts of the cave.

Jerusalem Festival of Light 2013: Blue Trail

This is exactly what it looks: a rainbow made of neon tubes. “Rainbow Above,” by Eran Klein and Eli Cochavi, is one of those pieces that was more successful as a concept. The installation was so close to the buildings that it was nearly impossible to photograph without having awnings and other lights in the picture.

“Illusion of Transparency,” by Yael Schiffman, was a kaleidoscope projected into the tunnel of the Closed Cardo.

Philipp Artus’s “Snail Trail” was underwhelming, about as exciting as watching a cardiogram.

There was absolutely nothing at the Muristan. Pity.

Jerusalem Festival of Light 2013: Y Circus Performance, “Q”

Back to the Jerusalem Festival of Light…. This year’s live performance was Y Circus, to the music of Queen. Above: Israel’s answer to Freddy Mercury. I didn’t make a video of the performance but I see that someone else uploaded a video.

I like to ride my bicycle….

This shot was not easy to get–dark background, dim lighting, and they were rotating continuously. Got lucky with one shot where one of the performers was smiling at the audience.

Feathers flying around the stage

Cool mirror effect with a woman suspended underneath the one on top.

Video: Fire Dance in Tzahal Square, Jerusalem

 
 

I was in the middle of posting the Jerusalem Light Festival photos when I got side-tracked by a weekend trip to Manchester and Dublin. This woman dancing with a burning hoop was not part of the Light Festival but she was performing in Tsahal Square at the same time. I thought she was quite good and was glad I could get a video of the whole routine.