JEWISH JOURNAL
January 5, 2001
MYSTIC LETTERS
by ERIC ROTH,
Contributing
Writer
IF GOD UTTERED WORDS TO CREATE THE UNIVERSE,
it's not surprising that two L.A. artists are using the Hebrew alphabet
as inspiration for their own work.
"Letters of Foundation," now at The Jewish
Federation's Bell Gallery, is a multimedia show that traces the 2,500 year
evolution of all 22 Hebrew letters. The letters are considered, in the kabbalistic tradition, to be "the
protoplasm of creation," photographer Dennis Paul says.
The project by Paul and his wife, artist Lynn Small, is a series of 24 pieces,
one for each Hebrew letter, plus a cover image and an endplate; the colorful
collages incorporate photographs, scribbled letters, painted images and
woven fibers. Paul says each "tablet" shows every
known form of each letter from approximately 400 BCE forward.
The series is dedicated to the memory of Israeli textile artist Julia Keiner
Forchheimer. "We think of the work as being created
by the three of us," Paul said during an interview in the couple's
artfilled Fairfax-area apartment. "Each
tablet has Julia's fibers, my mixed-media drawings and Dennis'-photographs,"
Small adds. The goal is to weave
ancient symbols into modern metaphors.
Also in the gallery is work from the artists' "Kabbalah Series,"
more Hebrew letters and quotes juxtaposed on layered images of novas and
other heavenly bodies. The dramatic "Before One" (1997-98),
for example, is a large Lightjet print that includes a reconfigured NASA
photograph of the Orion Nebula galaxy taken from the Hubble space telescope.
"A miracle of our time is that we can view a new universe literally
being created," Paul says. "Understanding
that image opens new doors of perception."
And possibly, glimpses of the divine.
The exhibit is on display at The Jewish Federation's Bell Gallery, 6505 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.
The artists' Web site is
www.viewart.com/colabart/kabbalah.htm
BACK
FORWARD
MAY 11, 2001
Location, Location: At Installations Wedding Art to Technology, Context
Is Everything
By LESLIE COHEN
Questions as to the meaning of a work of art and the significance
of art in human life are a staple of modern intellectual life. By contrast,
questions about where a society displays its finest works of art and to whom
are rarer. Yet the place where art is exhibited, and the public it attempts
to reach, reflect significant and deep-seated values.
Throughout history, cultural values have carefully circumscribed
the placement of art. For instance, the largest graves to be found are the
Egyptian pyramids. Many of their art treasures were buried in sealed chambers,
so that none but the dead would be able to see or "use" them — an arrangement
motivated by beliefs about the afterlife. Religious beliefs similarly led
to the creation of monumental art and architecture throughout Asia and Europe.
Unlike the pyramids, these works of art — as the Taliban is intensely aware
— were meant to provide spiritual inspiration for the living.
Because modern Western society values democracy and equal rights
for all people, galleries and museums in recent times have made art increasingly
accessible to the public. And today even more innovative niches have been
created by such artists as Americans Dennis Paul and Lynn Small and Israeli
David Morris to bring fine art into the daily lives of millions.
Mr. Paul and Ms. Small's "CoLabART" Web site (www.viewart.com/colabart)
features an interactive poem, music, text and visual imagery. By embedding
their messages of world peace, ecological harmony, the continuity of the generations
and the oneness of human beings and nature into their artwork, a strong spiritual
element pervades the exhibit.
Their poem "Tapestry of Hope," for example, proclaims in its final
line that "Man is but a strand in the web of life." In keeping with this,
viewers are encouraged to select phrases from the original poem and elaborate
on them with statements of their own. The poem expresses the artists' concern
with the future well-being of the Earth and encourages viewers to become involved
in an interactive manner — one of the first art pieces on the Web to do so.
Similarly, the "Landscape" series features paintings and mixed-media
images accompanied by poetry, inspirational texts and music. Along with images
of waterfalls, deserts and other scenic spots, the artists provide information
on the places portrayed in their work, with particular regard to the ecological
dangers they are facing today. They write, "Through the details of a specific
landscape — the macrocosm of nature — one can meditate on the wonder of creation
itself."
The artists believe that our appreciation of natural beauty is related
to our spiritual awareness and obligates us to preserve the Earth.
Perhaps the most directly spiritual messages are expressed in the
"Kabbalah" series. Here, the artists interpret the ancient Hebrew alphabet
as analogous to the building blocks of the universe. "According to Kabbalistic
thought, prior to creation," they write, "God created the Letters of Foundation.
It is in the combination of these letters from which everything within creation
was formed." Accordingly, they have created an artistic interpretation for
every Hebrew letter.
While their presentation has a potential audience of millions, and
is free to anyone with Internet access, a different way of bringing together
technology and art has been created by Israeli artist David Morris, whose
sculpture gallery is located on the working floor of the electrolytic paint
factory on Kibbutz Ein Hashofet.
Mr. Morris's exhibit consists of 18 pieces of ceramic sculpture that
line the wall facing the machinery on the factory floor. The practical aspect
of displaying art on the factory floor — from the factory CEO's point of view
— is to keep the work space organized and clean. And, in fact, the room in
which the statues stand is spotless. From the artist's perspective, this "everyman's
gallery" provides an opportunity to make one's work more accessible to the
general public. Unlike a standard art gallery, the factory working floor is
a place people enter on a daily basis. Since the workroom is open day and
night (except on weekends), kibbutz members and visitors can view the exhibit
whenever they have leisure time.
The ceramic sculptures — combining human faces and limbs with the
beaks and wings of animals — are placed on wooden stands about waist high.
Each is about the size of a table lamp. Several statues are bionic rather
than organic, with machine-like appendages in geometrical forms. With limbs
jutting out at odd angles, many of these whimsical creatures seem to be dancing.
Their facial and sexual features are minimally but clearly represented.
The artist's use of recognizable features to create fantasy beings
provokes a lively commentary on the human condition. Made of wood-fired terra
cotta, the statues exude warmth and have become a part of the factory workers'
daily lives. (The exhibit is changed several times a year, thereby encouraging
people to continue visiting on a regular basis.)
While the kibbutz factory installation and "CoLabART" could not
be more dissimilar, they share several principles that reflect an evolution
in society's relationship to art. Easily accessible and placed in convenient
settings, they weave beauty into the mundane and make fine art available to
great numbers of people at no cost. Equally important, they put technology
in the service of human beings, dispelling the notion that the technology
in our lives is destined to dehumanize us.
Ms. Cohen, a native New Yorker who has been an active member of
Kibbutz Ein Hashofet for 20 years, publishes reviews, poems and interviews
in journals from Israel to New Zealand.
Angels, Ancestors and Spirit Guides
MYTHOS Gallery
Los Angeles
Lynn Small and Dennis Paul pay tribute to an Israeli
weaver
by interpreting the letters of the cabala
with mixed media collages
for each letter...
Nancy Kapitanoff
Los Angeles Times
November 11, 1994