Popeyit The Strongest Believer | 2020
Popeyit is a new persona combining both forces of Olive Oyl and Popeye into a new whole. She is a female leader and an activist who believes in our inner strength and inspires us to take action. She is Authentic, sometimes vulnerable and spineless, and sometimes the strongest believer. She embodies collaboration, creativity, and innovation. An eternal optimist, Popeyit sees responsibility and action toward change as pure fun! She loves it, she lives for it!
and…! She doesn’t need spinach or iron anchors; her strength comes from consistent, small actions that remind that the change is within us.
The Blue Period | Popeyit's Exhibition 2024
Following a profound crisis in the life of artist Tal Tenne Czaczkes in 2016, she began an intensive collection of broken toys which she used in an intuitive process of disassembly and reassembly, healing, defining identity, and believing in capability. During this period of crisis, termed the "Blue period", she abandoned old conventions and turned bravely to realizing a vision that would finally emerge as a whole represented by the figure of “Popeyit” – a post-feminist figure of a woman who does not need iron anchors on her arms or to eat spinach to be strong and groundbreaking – to be who she wants to be.
Desperate | Acrilic on wood | 2015
Sheroine | Assemblage | 2016
With a passion and curiosity for shiny plastic, Czaczkes began disassembling and creating hybrid sculptural figures, small hybrid creations, among them: angel wings attached to the figure of Venus based on a flying saucer, and in another statuette – a doll’s head attached to a blue plastic hoop. These disturbing connections reference mythological creatures, monsters, and legendary animals like the Minotaur, mermaid, and more. Fictional figures represent archetypes associated with their image. For the artist, however, the creation of these hybrids and connections evolved into the construction of her renewed identity, until she incidentally connected Olive Oyl’s head to her partner Popeye’s body and gave the figure the name "Popeyit".
Connecting Popeye and Olive into a new whole | 2017
Three years later, accidentally, she returned to the figure and began exploring what it seeks to become. She manifested it in her creation through versions in painting and silk prints and connected to the story of Olive – a comic and cartoon character created in 1919 by Elsie Segar. Popeye’s character joined in 1929. According to their storylines, when there is trouble, he gains strength by eating spinach from a can to save his beloved Olive, who cries out to him for help. Czaczkes rescues Olive/Popeyit from traditional feminine weakness, recasting her as an independent woman who directs her own life. She draws her as a football player and as a bearer of the pride flag, unbound by place, gender, or sector.
Winnerit | Industrial Oil on Canvas | 2020
Oh boy she CAN! | Industrial oil on wood | 2020
The Queen Mother | Industrial Oil on wood | 2020
Two Good | Industrial oil on canvas | 2020
I love you, MeToo | Acrylic on wood | 2021
concrete
cast
wheat
in the wind
I woke up from a dream with these words, realizing that this is the essence of Popeyit – Standing strong and flexible when needed – Popeye and Olive in the same body.
Sculpture, 30 cm High
2023
Free | 2024
Pride | 2023
Popeye has been referenced in numerous artistic works over the years, for example, he appears in pieces by pop artists: Andy Warhol (Popeye, 1960), Roy Lichtenstein (Popeye in Red and Yellow, 1960), Jeff Koons (Three Popeyes, 2008). In contrast, Olive has not yet received a serious artistic tribute. Czaczkes drew inspiration from these and other artists in composing Popeyit’s character, emerging from the margins to the center stage, equal in position.
Until a Woman Came Along
Industrial oil on canvas
Painted as an homage to the PopArt masters Warhol, Koons, Lichtenstein, and to E.C. Segar, who created Popeye. All Were men who created the masculine Popeye.
2021
Ceci n'est pas une pipe
A self-portrait from the series "Tali's Mustache" inspired by "Dali's Mustache" (Photographed by Philip Helsman), Magritte, and Popeye
2023
Unlike the pop art movement that encouraged consumer culture, Czaczkes promotes the use of consumer remnants, recycling waste, and turning it into the spectacle itself. For her, the disposable becomes reusable, and its use becomes a sustainable celebration as she takes responsibility for herself and the environment.
Phoenix
Sculpture
Crashed leftover Plastic toys and plastic debris
2023
Popeyit's exhibition 2024
Artist: Tal Tenne Czaczkes
Curator: Nurit Tal Tenne
Following a profound crisis in the life of artist Tal Tenne Czaczkes in 2016, she began an intensive collection of broken toys which she used in an intuitive process of disassembly and reassembly, healing, defining identity, and believing in capability. During this period of crisis, termed the "Blue period", she abandoned old conventions and turned bravely to realizing a vision that would finally emerge as a whole represented by the figure of “Popeyit” – a post-feminist figure of a woman who does not need iron anchors on her arms or to eat spinach to be strong and groundbreaking – to be who she wants to be.
Simultaneously, Czaczkes also reclaims Popeye from the familiar mold. His figure becomes refined and feminine, adorned in Olive’s dress, with her slender body and delicate pose.
Popeyit, born out of a personal story, is becoming a collective story. She does not represent the alter ego of the artist nor a fictitious character. She does not pretend to be a superhero like Wonder Woman, Superman, or Batman. Popeyit is one of us, a reflection of our ability to rise and act with strength. Popeyit’s muscle is faith, determination, and perseverance, allowing us to discover our inner strengths and transition from broken to a new whole.
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The Blue Period (1901-1904) was a period in the life of Pablo Picasso during which he mainly produced paintings characterized by dark, cold colors such as blue, dark green, and black, colors known to create a sad atmosphere.