The video Studio Visit with Ronit Baranga is available to watch at the top of the page.
Artist Ronit Baranga is a master of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, crafting sculptures that challenge the boundaries between life and stillness. Her distinctive ceramic works, often incorporating human organs such as mouths and fingers into everyday objects like plates and cups, blur the line between the familiar and the uncanny. With each piece, Baranga compels viewers to reconsider the mundane, as her inanimate creations come alive with a haunting presence. Baranga’s sculptures invite reflection on the fragility of existence and the complex, often contradictory emotions that define the human experience.
Baranga’s collection encompasses various pieces that blur the lines between the animate and inanimate. For instance, her work titled Goddess Artemis is a standing figurative sculpture, meticulously painted to resemble wet clay, reaching 160cm tall. This figure is intertwined with strings attached to dozens of small vases with open mouths, all arranged within a 170cm radius around her. In this portrayal, the goddess becomes a mother figure that both nourishes and consumes, compelling viewers to contemplate the nuanced relationship between life and death.
In her thought-provoking Tattooed Babies series, Baranga introduces sleeping newborns sculptures adorned with body tattoos. This arresting imagery contrasts innocence with the enduring influence of external factors. The tattoos serve as poignant metaphors for the perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs that society imprints on us from an early age, echoing the indelible mark left on us by our own parents.
Baranga’s work has been displayed in museums and galleries worldwide, including Banksy’s “Dismaland,” as well as in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Istanbul, Taiwan, China, Germany, Tel-Aviv, and Australia. Her sculptures and installations provoke deep emotional reactions, and her exploration of relationships offers a powerful commentary on the human experience.
The featured video Studio Visit with Ronit Baranga is part of the web series Yotsrim by Shachaf Dekel. Yotsrim includes five seasons and 73 episodes. The series won the Best Documentary award at the NYC Web Fest in 2019.
