The name ManaManot has a double meaning. It combines the Hebrew word mana, or “portion” and Manot, a moshav (cooperative community) founded in the 1980 in the western Galilee, near the Lebanese border. During 2010, Ishay took a series of photographs of Manot’s original 1980s abandoned homes. She then proceeded to carry out additional “portions” (manot) of artistic interventions, culminating in the video before us.
During the 80s, the economic situation of the founding members was difficult and they built small, humble lodgings. With the economic prosperity that followed, the original homes were abandoned and large villas were constructed in their place. The abandoned homes were the raw material for a series of color photographs titled Manot (2010). Later on, Ishay worked on the same photos by digitally converting them into a black-and-white series. This new work was christened Manot 2010. Subsequently, in 2013, Ishay used the still images from Manot 2010in the video ManaManot, where she digitally modified the images and used an animation program to superimpose them on each other. This erased the boundaries between the original images, giving birth to a new single and complex image. At the end of the video, white bands cover the final, single image of the abandoned homes. On the one hand, these bands appear to erase the memory of those homes, while on the other they seem to be protecting their image, like a bandage.
Ishay’s work is concerned with memories and their safekeeping. On a larger scale, it provides a subtle commentary on Israeli society and its newly acquired materialistic values.

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