HADASS SHLAGMAN NAMMU

*Nammu – A mythological Sumerian mother, the most ancient documented in history, c. 3500 B.C. Nammu is the mother who gives birth to heaven and earth and the creator of all things. The primal mother. She represents a warm and accepting female deity.

In her paintings, Hadass Shlagman strips away the layer of external fat that constitutes Western beauty concepts – or whatever remains of them – and engraves her desires into black tarpaper. There is neither time nor air on or on the work platform. The externalized naked figures with open vaginas, the giant penis, and massive breasts, resonate with each other, creating harmony. At first glance, it looks as if it were drawn on a thick fabric extracted from the earth, a fascinating prehistoric artifact.

After spending some twenty years in Australia, and countless journeys to remote parts of the globe, a fascinating chapter in its own right, Shlagman magnifies the visual and non-conceptual innocence seared in her mind. In her series of paintings, Nammu, she expresses her personal vision of how the world should look. It is an idealized version of a private reality with elements of primitive drawing and even bad painting elements. Painting that encompasses grotesque caricature, wildness, and humor, out of conscious choice and maturity.

Shlagman adopts a pagan ritualistic process in service of her art. In this ritualistic presentation, which maintains its essential quality as belonging to the present, she conveys to the viewer a spectacular position of strength of unbridled sexuality, of sex as a natural behavior – artistry in the world of art. Her painting is devoid of tension between the masculine and feminine.