Some Thougths on Yael Erlichman's Sculptures
By Varda Steinlauf - A curator at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Her essays on modern and contemporary art have appeared in numerous books and catalogues, 2011
Hanging at the entrance to the artist Yael Erlichman's home is a bronze mask of a medusa with puffed cheeks. Another medusa with a wide-open mouth and protruding tongue hangs elsewhere within the house. In ancient times, images of the medusa's head, with coiled snakes for hair and a tongue protruding out between sharp fangs, was stamped onto doors, walls, coins, and suits of armor in the hope of dispelling evil and keeping it out of arm's reach.
Another female figure sculpted in bronze is immersed in a pool of water in the garden surrounding the artist's house. Only her upper body and legs peer out of the water, whose surface is covered with water lilies and green leaves. Clumps of grapes hang off the large ribbon tied around her hair. This full-bodied, succulent, partially undressed figure is highly sensuous.
Yael Erlichman
By Orit Lotringer - Art Curator and Critic, 2006
Yael Erlichman's impressive bronze sculptures address the human image; however her work deviates from the accurate realistic documentary depiction, providing a subjective, optimistic, and poetic angle, stemming from the artist's inner world and personal experiences. Her sculptures are characterized by a positivistic approach which does not seek to protest, or touch upon the darker and painful aspects of life, constituting a declaration of sorts and sincere aspiration toward evoking tranquility and revealing manifestations of the inner beauty of humankind.