In the third part of the field-guide “Rachel Rabinovitch – A Life”, the artist embarks upon a frontal collision with the age-of-reason, by means of ink, water colors and paper.

Rabinovitch was born, grew, evolved and lives at Kibbutz Dafna on the banks of Dan River, which constitutes a spectacular ecological encounter of animals, thick forest, trees and rustling waters. Rabinovitch, who has been dipping in it over dozens of years, defines herself, her spiritual, physical and intellectual liberty, through the flow of the river, flora, soil, and fauna residing in it. But while she grows, blossoms and ages to cessation, the river persists in its infinite eternal flow, subject to seasonal changes alone. The clash and recognition of the transformations of the human body, fading away against the permanence of nature’s beauty are the Memento-mori at the center of the current body of work. Fierce Blue mimesis, proud and green, raging and red, storming and yellow, still and pink, flower, leaf, branch, sky, stone and in the middle an airy sprite, absorbed like the ink in the swarming face of the paper. The morbid human figure conducts dual relations with nature. In one cluster it floats and is absorbed in it to total dissolution, in another cluster it dances with it the dance of knifes and skulls – for life and death. Rabinovitch plays with the transmutation in her face, toying with the change distorting it, stretching cheeks, extending lips, rejuvenating eyebrows and adorning a red-hot-chilly-pepper mustache. Fear of death and the ridicule at the helplessness given its inevitability, join together in an absurd climax as Rabinovitch chooses to merge with a glorious lizard – a fire salamander. A colorful amphibian laid with stars and fire, emerging as the rain intensifies and vanishing when it ceases, that due to its fleeting nature was considered Satanistic in the Middle Ages, related to demons and witches. The colorful Rabinovitch salamander roams lonely or in groups on the paper, separating from the safe realm of the river and forest. As such, it becomes at once an icon of purposefulness, consciousness, the power and spirit of the artist as sorceress, materializing Ecclesiastes’ words “Vanity all the vain” in ink, line, spot, water and paint.