SMALL WONDER, PAST PRESENT FUTURE The hierarchical perception of art was shaken in the recent 55th Venice Biennale. Young curator Massimiliano Gioni informed art lovers that the distinction between artist and artisan had expired, and that equal treatment must be given to all those engaging with craft and matter as to those practicing art as a "pure" concept. This international exhibition, like other shows in Israel and abroad which presented Art Brut work, introduced artists considered "outsiders" into the museum, indicating that this art form is deserving of serious consideration. This phenomenon marks the elimination of the artificial boundaries between "high" and "low", between "design" / "craft" and "pure" art, giving rise to an artistic field for experiential pluralism, which acknowledges and cherishes new values. The current exhibition of the Israel Designer Craftsmen's Association, "Small Wonder: Past Present Future" corresponds with this state of mind. It strives to bring two artistic inclinations together: on the one hand, a conceptual artistic statement underlain by personal and collective baggage on the theme of "past present future"; on the other hand – engagement with matter, with painstaking manual labor which requires skill and relies on an age-old tradition. The participating artists had to meet two preliminary requirements: they were asked to submit works whose dimensions did not exceed 1 sq. m., and which allude to a specific period in their lives, in such a way that they tie the personal facet to an artistic statement by touching upon memory, materiality, or social criticism. Veronica Ellran created a cluster of small works, on the verge of jewels, which come together to form a private time capsule, echoing the desire to be a mother alongside the longing for a child, translated into an obsessive repetition of a baby doll element in different variations. Arie Berkowitz Curator of the Exhibition LONGING Time as an infinite dimension causes great disconcert. The inability to conceive of infinity makes me withdraw into my private time, in an attempt to find an image for the single experience running through my being: the yearning (for motherhood). This ongoing experience deviates from the boundaries of my subjective time. It began with my desire to be a mother, and transformed into a longing for my firstborn who was killed, lost. The first works ("Longing 1") – 2 pieces - conveys longing as a physical, bodily occurrence; the second ("Longing 2") – 5 pieces - articulates its emotional aspect as continuous yearning.