Nona Orbach

Nona Orbach (Hebrew: נונה אורבך; born 1953) is an Israeli multidisciplinary artist, art therapist and teacher.

Biography Nona Orbach was born and raised in Ness Ziona. Her family immigrated to Ness Ziona from Russia in 1883. Her father, Prof. Abraham Patchornik, was a senior organic chemist at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Orbach earned a BA in arts from Oranim Academic College in 1984, and an MA in art therapy from Lesley College, Boston, in 1988. An English translation of the book was published electronically in 2016. In discussing her work as a conceptual artist, Orbach compares herself to an archaeologist. In the late 1990s she created a conceptual "archaeological" website called Tel-Nona ("Nona mound", the Hebrew name echoing an archeological mound). According to Orbach, the site is where she mentally and spiritually digs for discoveries: she is simultaneously the mound being dug, the digger, the methods, and the findings. Orbach invented a character called Mound Hacker, who leaves ostraca at archeological sites and maps them on Google Earth. Each ostracon on Google Earth links to her blog, which is dedicated primarily to the loss of the Great Library of Alexandria. Using various metaphorical devices, the blog offers a commentary on how humanity develops massive bodies of knowledge and easily loses them. In 2013, she was a keynote speaker at the Permissions and Inspirations, University of Haifa.

Orbach and Tchetchik's 1992 exhibition "Chariot Sculptures", at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, featured about forty Roman chariot sculptures, variously elaborated. The following year, Orbach and Tchetchik presented about twenty of these at the Grand Palais in Paris. The sculptures dealt with the complex relationships between the image of a winged female charioteer, made of paper in a variety of techniques, and her chariot, made of iron.

In her 1998 exhibition "Restless Torso" at the New Art Gallery in Kiryat Tivon, Orbach presented two collections : paper drawings from the series '1000 Drawings', and plaster reliefs of fossils from the series 'Fossils'. Using pencils, oil pastels, and collage, Orbach juxtaposed different forms of drawing, such as prehistoric cave paintings covered with archaeological layers. The fossils were made of plaster and pigments embedded with scraps of metal, wood, and bone. Some were placed in wooden boxes, supposedly for safekeeping, as if rare specimens in a natural history museum; while others were placed in glass cases set on the gallery walls.

For the 2001 exhibition "Tel Nona" at the Israeli National Maritime Museum in Haifa, Orbach created a faux archaeological site, based on items she had collected over the years. These formed the artist's interpretation of archaeological statuettes from the Chalcolithic and Canaanite cultures. With minimal modification, everyday off-the-shelf items were turned into "ancient" archaeological artifacts. Part of the exhibition, "Large Remains", included monumental floor-standing wall sculptures made of plaster and pigments, installed on wire mesh and iron frames. A further slide installations called "Pit of Memory and Oblivion" featured photographs of holes dug on the beach, projected as light circles from the ceiling onto the floor, in a wide, dark space.

Orbach's 2004 exhibition "Hedge", at the Tova Osman Gallery in Tel Aviv, formed a sequel to "Tel Nona". This exhibition had three parts. One consisted of paper drawings from the "1000 Drawings" series: using pencils and oil chalks on little square pieces of paper, Orbach had sketched a collection of images : a leaf, a table, a fish, a cypress tree, a wheel – all simulating human torsos. The second part featured narrow wooden strips hanging on a hedge. The third part was an element borrowed from the "Tel Nona" (2001) 'Large Remains' series a sarcophagus-shaped boat, made of a plastered iron-and-netting framework, resting on a window.

Orbach's 2005 video project "Incessant Mezuzah", documented the scroll writing, case writing, and other processes of a Jewish mezuzah.

Selected solo exhibitions 1991, "Connected Vessels", Arsuf Gallery, Rishpon (Catalog). 1992, "Chariot Sculptures", Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (Catalog). 1998, "1000 Drawings", Art Gallery, Western Galilee College. 1998, "Restless Torso", New Art Gallery, Kiryat Tivon (Catalog). 2000, "Daftar", Beit Midrash Elul, Jerusalem. 2001, "Tel Nona", The National Maritime Museum, Haifa (Catalog). 2009, "Second Excavation Season", Kay Academy, Beersheba. 2011, "Mending Tools", Museum of Art, Ein Harod 2013, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Tel Nona, Audience Version, performance installation, and Mound Hacker, a key to ancient Alexandria library.

Selected group exhibitions 2017, "En-counter 4" , Gallery space Kagiya, Kyoto. 2014, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art Annex, including an honor prize. 2014, "Visual Scripts" – Wilfrid Israel Museum, Israel. 2013, "I am from here", Kiryat Tivon. 2009, Artists House, Tel Aviv. 2008, "Incessant Mezuzah", NCA, Tokyo (Catalog). 2008, "In Sight", Mirai Gallery, Tokyo (Catalog). 2008, "Landscape: Four fences and yearning", Artist Studio, Yavne. 2008, "Glances at a portrait", Danon Gallery, Tel Aviv. 2007, "Drawing Biennale" – Jerusalem Artists House (Catalog). 2007, "Incessant Mezuzah" video work – Jewish Museum, New York. 2005, "1000 Drawings" – The Jerusalem Artists House (Catalog). 2004, 'The Wandering Library", Markers IV: Artist Book Event, Book Museum, Lodz. 2004, "Mezuzah" Time for Art, Gideon Ofrat, curator. 2003, "Wandering Library", Markers IV: Artist Book Event concurrent with the 2003 Venice Biennale, The Jewish Museum of Venice. 1993, "Contemporary Israeli Fiber Art", Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland (Catalog). 1993, "Contemporaines 93", Grand Palais, Paris (Catalog). 1993, "Objects of Desire", Bat-Yam Museum (Catalog). 1991, "Acquisitions 1991–1993", Haifa Museum of Art (Catalog).

Permanent collections 2007, "Incessant Mezuzah" video artwork, Jewish Museum in New York. 2001, "Memory" diptych donated to the Haifa Museum. 1991, "Basin" acquired by Meir Aharonson for the Haifa Museum.