Both of my prints, “Mountain” and “Guy” were inspired by Kaplan׳s art, by communal sleeping and the separation from my partner. Getting to know Kaplan’s works I immediately noticed the humanness of the animals accompanying people in various situations in the illustrations for Sholem Aleichem’s stories. In my prints, I wanted to demonstrate communication in situations of no control over the body and of the lack of words. For me, the most interesting activity in bed is dreaming, the freedom from the subconscious. Dreaming is free of conventions and social rules; therefore communal sleeping creates a breached, savage and wild space.
I used Kaplan’s human-like animals as raw material for expressing the unseen events: the inner activity as opposed to the outer stillness. Being non-verbal, the animals allowed me to express the goings-on in the seemingly quiet hours, while inside the mind of each of the sleeping children there is an action-packed nature film.

I loved the smooth stone with the wax painting on it. The stillness that emerges from the contact between the stone and the pencil wax, the quietness that connects the creative process of the artwork with the tension seen within it.

Guy Nissenhaus (b.1986)
Artist. Lives and works in Tel Aviv. Holds degrees from Shenkar College (cum laude) and The Bezalel Academy of Art. Exhibited solo at The Jerusalem Artists House, HaMidrasha School of Art, the Ramat Gan Museum, Maya Gallery, and more. Took part in many group exhibitions in museums and galleries in Israel. Winner of the Ministry of Culture and Sports Prize for Young Artists in 2017 and The Shenkar Dean Prize in 2011.