Israeli industrial designer Yaacov Kaufman is noted for work that evokes a sense of dealing with ready-made. In fact, he creates each piece as part of a study of nuances an embodiment of his search for simplicity and abstraction through minimal intervention. Each of his pieces of wood, metal, glass, and other miscellaneous materials is endowed with an individual identity and anthropomorphic qualities, implying a historical and archaeological tradition dating to prehistory. The figurines seem to be ritualistic talismans or shamanistic objects, and thus begin to take on lives of their own. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of Kaufmans intriguing figurines in Tel Aviv.