Occupational genetics is a psycho-genetic field that examines people’s chosen occupations – an aspect that is not dependent on biology but is, at times, inherited as if it were a component of one’s DNA. In this context, cross generational professional tendencies and activity-oriented personality traits are examined.

The exhibition presents Juany Mukmel and Talia Mukmel’s bodies of work. Juany is a textile designer who works primarily with paper and Talia is a product designer who manually crafts her pieces. Juany and Talia are also a mother and daughter. They do not work together, at least not on a conscious level, yet the interplay between their works is evident in their technique, artistic language, and endless devotion to craftwork.

This “genetic imperative” is explored in the exhibition not through personality traits but through development processes, as well as through the study of materials and objects. Additionally presented in the exhibition, are the implications of these genetics in the context of the generational gap and what this means in terms of the use of technical and technological approaches, how contemporary the products are, and how they relate to the past.

The exhibition presented their work both together and separately. The entrance hall displayed research and material development processes. Both mother and daughter’s styles of search and study contain so many meeting points that the boundaries occasionally blur and one’s process seems to evolve into the other’s project. For this reason, their individual work processes were presented as one collection in this space. The highly observant viewer will try to discern which work belongs to each artist and hold comparisons addressing the subtle differences, while others will observe the many similarities between mother and daughter.

In the second exhibition space, in lightboxes clustered along the museum’s surrounding corridor, their work was presented separately, according to a project and with graphic color distinctions. Here, each voice was presented individually; affording viewers the opportunity to examine the different generational approach to the integration of technology as a tool used in the process of crafting.

Photo Credit – Dor Kedmi