This work raises questions about local culture. Choosing images of ‘Land of Israel*’ clay pots was a result of looking for their local characteristics and questioning – what are local archaeological objects? who made them?
Kaminker chose graffiti as her visual language in a gesture of acknowledgement to the illustrators that worked with archaeologists over the years and with time are losing their jobs due to techological changes. This gesture examines the limits of the genre and its relationship with other styles in the history of local ceramics. A lot of local graffiti is created by people who were not born in Israel. Also in the international arena, many graffiti artists are immigrants and in New York in the second half of the previous century graffiti is considered an expression of poor hispanic and black youth.
For Kaminker – a new immigrant who came to Israel from the USSR (Ukraine) and began with nothing, graffiti creates in a very direct way something local. For her to create underground graffiti of a local pot is an act of living, a sign of local life. In addition, this is an act of cultural connection to a skill that is losing its value of existance. It is not an act of marking territory but honest evidence that we are all a type of local vessel.
*From Ruth Amiran, 1971, “Ancient ceramics of the Land of Israel”, Bialik Institute
