Mikado is not a Children’s Game
Suly Bornstein-Wolf Mikado is not a Children’s Game
The experienced and coherent artist Suly Bornstein-Wolf presents a new series under the title: “Mikado is not a children’s game”. The designs combine esthetic qualities with philosophical ideas with which she is preoccupied along her artistic venue. In this series she creates an abundance of original combinations from Mikado-like units. In the original children’s game they are made of wood or plastic and have a long, thin shape with pointed edges. Suly maintains the original shape but uses soft materials as different sorts of papers and fabrics in different sizes, which she rolls and tightens. The stereotypic shape varies according to the colors and textures of the papers or fabrics. As in all the stages of her artistic path she is recollecting childhood memories and neutralizes the fear of hurting herself or others with the sharp units, by using soft materials. symbolizing the tenderness of adolescence. The use of recycled materials is one of the characteristics of her venue. She believes in continuation and giving new life even to thrown away objects. She recycles cartons of toilet paper, different sorts of papers, leafs made from old paintings etc. In this series she uses newspapers, journals, printed fabrics (Giklee),etc. The rational choice is driven according to the character of the specific unit, its’ texture, structure and color. The objects include a wide variety of sizes and subjects and include small jewelry and big structures varying from several centimeters to several meters. The artist began to roll papers while recovering from an illness and consolidated her ides while working. The designs are different not only by their sizes but also by structure, colors and special shape. The different sizes enable her, like’ Alice in Wonderland” to transform from one size to another. The transformation is connected to cross points in life and they are related also to freedom of creation. In the original game the players have to remove the units without touching the neighboring ones, here they are strongly attached to each other in different combinations relating to ideas of the relations between the individual and the whole, junctions and directions, stagnation versus mobility and encounters with space. The whole process exemplifies the immense possibilities of creativity. Alongside the static objects she creates from the same units hanged environments which resemble pine leafs. They enable the viewers to enter into the plentiful forest and “get lost” into it. Several years ago she created a similar idea using leafs made from painted fabrics. The process of entering into the foliage and getting lost in it is also reminiscent of het early childhood in Brazil. Suly continues also to paint her multi layered oil paintings based on her own photographs. In the recent painting she uses Mikado like shapes to portray bushes and continues to relate to seasons on one or separate canvas. The power of nature and regeneration is represented by growing leafs from a cu trunk. The creation of abundance through an obsessive repetitive process is connected to her need to overcome the fear of death.
Dr. Dalia Hakker-Orion. August 2014
Suly Bornstein-Wolf Mikado is not a Children’s Game