Art Kibbutz: Jewish Environmental/Land Art Exhibition and Residency
Art Kibbutz: THE JEWISH WALTZ WITH PLANET EARTH
For immediate release
Shira Dicker 917.403.3989
Patricia Eszter Margit 347.479.8274
High resolution images available.
In a new exhibit Art Kibbutz’s select group of artists give collaborative and creative
Jewish responses to climate change, food security, farming, and sustainable
development. They spent a month creating works inspired by nature and our rich
heritage. In addition the exhibition shows how this revolutionary, unprecedented
project, was also a living model of a thriving, inspired, sustainable Jewish artistic
community, grounded in social responsibility and the Jewish heritage.
Exhibition opening: August 3rd, 3pm
Governor’s Island, Colonel’s Row, Building 407
Opening words: Nigel Savage, Hazon
Yona Verwer, Art Kibbutz, curator
Exhibition Open: July 27 - August 15, 2014
Hours: Noon - 5 pm daily
The exhibit features works that were created at Art Kibbutz’s month-long pilot residency
in May 2013 at Eden Village, NY, where 30 international participants from 8 countries,
all age groups and religious backgrounds, came together with the power to shape an
innovative new program, the only one of its kind to explore creative art, Jewish
teachings and tradition and environmental awareness.
Nikki Green and Asherah Cinnamon built a 12 ft sculpture based on the Hebrew letter
shin; they used locally resourced wood branches to connect a group of people to the
land on which they lived together during that period of time. At sunset it was launched
and set afloat on the lake.
Carol Philips created white Jewish prayer flags; they serve as a gateway between two
spaces at Camp Eden: the Makom Kodesh, where community prayer is held, and a forest
path.
Based on a Talmudic midrash explaining manna as the food that “draws out the heart”,
Elyssa Wortzman journeyed into the forest to forage for manna, spiritual sustenance
that derives from the environment. Using the map of Eden Village as the underlying
image, Wortzman created a collection of mixed media works that document this
process.
Cynthia Beth Rubin’s Eden Waters is digitally composited from manipulated video. It
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Art Kibbutz: Jewish Environmental/Land Art Exhibition and Residency
captures life in fresh water taken from a muddy stream in the Hudson Valley during the
Art Kibbutz residency. The video micro-captures were taken from small drops of water
in the Rhode Island School of Design Nature Lab, where Rubin is a part-time professor.
All imagery was found, digitized, and modified by the artist. Augmented Reality triggers,
using Aurasma, (channel: Eden Waters Mud) reveal the microscopic aquatic life. Emmett
Leader’s Gateway, incorporating large scale carved clay tiles with imagery and text, a
quote by Rabbi Eleazar, laid claim to the importance of the visual in the human
experience and also to imagery as a portal to Jewish spirituality.
Boundaries of Eden is new work by Paul R. Solomon that captures the landscape from
multiple points of view in a single exposure; a tour de force enabled by photographing
with an iPhone. The title echoes the first fall from grace in the quest for knowledge, and
thence power. In addition 5 prints document the residency. Besides images of the Shma
collaboration, it shows artists Devora Neumark and Deborah Margo. Inspired by the
work of such artists as James Turrell and Sook Jin Jo and the Jewish teachings about the
particular potency of prayer during Shavuot, they utilized organic parchment paper,
thread and materials found in the forest, to create an installation, intentionally
temporary, intended to suggest the connections between Heaven and Earth.
Curator: Yona Verwer.
Artist Residency on Governor’s Island – while the 1st floor of our building is used as a
gallery space featuring The Jewish Waltz With Planet Earth exhibition, the 2nd and 3rd
floor hosts an artist residency by a curated group of emerging writers, musicians and
visual artists between July 27th and August 15th.
Art Kibbutz is an international Jewish artist residency, community and hub. Its mission is
to foster global arts conversation and exchange among artists of exceptional talent in an
inspiring and peaceful space to work, learn and seriously explore the rich heritage of
Jewish experience that informs their creative process. THE JEWISH WALTZ WITH PLANET
EARTH marked a significant step that Art Kibbutz undertook towards the creation of an
international Jewish artist colony at a permanent location in New York.
More information: http://www.artkibbutz.org/environmentalland-art-residency.html
How to get to Governor's Island?
Governors Island, NYC, a short ferry-ride from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn! Click
here for directions.
Complete schedule of public ferries and additional information:
http://www.govisland.com/html/visit/directions.shtml
Colonels Row is a 10-minute walk from both ferry landings on Governors Island.
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Art Kibbutz: Jewish Environmental/Land Art Exhibition and Residency
About the Artists:
NIKKI GREEN was born in Sydney and received a Jewish education, where her knowledge
of Hebrew was grounded. She has been creating unique Jewish art, integrating her
traditional values within a contemporary Australian context. Another strong influence
motivating her work is the native flora and the rich colours of the rugged, Australian
landscape. Nikki has held numerous workshops and lectures on the art of illumination
and Jewish Art. She also coordinated several environmental art projects with local
schools. At Art Kibbutz Nikki finished her print series of Hebrew letters matched with
native Australian plants and created a collaboration with Asherah Cinnamon.
ASHERAH CINNAMON is a contemporary artist whose works display celebration and
healing. As a community builder and artist-in-residence she enjoys working in close
collaboration with organizations, community members, students, and other artists.
While in residence Asherah created several temporary installations utilizing readily
available on-site materials. For the entire time of the retreat Asherah Cinnamon (Maine)
and Nikki Green (Western Australia) have been busy scouring the woodlands of the
campgrounds, collecting the branches, roots and saplings which they have used to
construct a twelve foot shin representing the Shma: Listen which has been moved from
the studio toward the lakeside. At sunset it was launched and set afloat on the lake. Its
vibrations will long remain in this valley, possibly longer than the impact it had on the
community that helped launch it and witnessed its movement across the lake.
Artist Statement - Shema: Listen
This installation is the result of a lively three week collaboration at Art Kibbutz New York between
printmaker Nikki Green and sculptor Asherah Cinnamon. Based on the Hebrew letter shin, it uses locally
resourced wood branches to connect a group of people to the land on which they lived together during
that period of time. The lake is the visual and energy center of Eden Village. A 12 foot sculpture was
constructed by the two artists and brought from a working studio down to the lake in a procession of
more than 20 people (artists, along with farm, camp, and kitchen workers), singing spontaneously in
unison, and launching it onto the quiet lake, where it floated overnight to the other side and was then
anchored off shore for boaters to find and wonder at for months to come.
The letter shin has many meanings and symbols associated with it. It means different things to each of
us and to the viewer. It is the first letter of one of the Hebrew names of the Diety ( Shekinah, the female
presence). It is the first letter of the first word in the most important prayer in the Jewish religion, the
Shema, which asks us to listen, hear, and remember that we are all ONE. Shema means “hear” or
“listen”. This may be the single most important and revolutionary act any human can perform to heal the
earth.
Asherah Cinnamon: My creative practice explores the power of human interaction to build community. I
have two primary goals: seek justice (tzedek) and heal the world (tikkun olam). Deeply rooted in Jewish
Feminism, I am inspired by almost six thousand years of cultural philosophy and ritual. The concepts and
objects used in these traditions hold meaning, memory, and ethical solutions beyond any single culture
or religion.
Nikki Green: In my art, I am deeply inspired by the convergence of Jewish mysticism, eastern
philosophies and the natural order. Through the process of writing ancient texts, I became aware of the
transcendent powers of the letters and their forms. Specializing in printmaking, I have recently
completed a limited edition series of black and white lino-block prints, exploring the mystical significance
behind each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Through research of the healing qualities
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Art Kibbutz: Jewish Environmental/Land Art Exhibition and Residency
of the Australian bush flowers, I have sourced the emotive value of the letter and matched it to the
corresponding native flower. In addition to the black and white format (edition 18), I have also been
exploring the effects of hand dyed paper, creating two unique state artist books with colors extracted
from the native Australian landscape. This collection forms a series of ‘meditations’ or ‘intentions’ so to
speak, merging the mystical essence of the letter with the spirit of the land.
CAROL PHILLIPS has been making art for over 30 years. Throughout this time, some
aspects of her work have remained consistent: a love of color, an obsession with
composition, and the use of nature and mystic texts for inspiration. At Art Kibbutz she
created white Jewish prayer flags, based formally and conceptually on the Tibetan
prayer flag model, brought to an entirely new level.
Artist Statement: Gateway to Her Dwelling – Carol Phillips
Entrance to Her Dwelling serves as a gateway between two spaces at Camp Eden: the Makom Kodesh,
where community prayer is held, and a forest path. In my worldview, both of these places are sacred.
The being to whose dwelling the title refers is the Shekinah, the female presence of God. She, unlike God
Himself, is said to dwell on our earth, among the Jewish people. Having painted interpretations of the
Shekinah’s dwelling for many years, I attended Art Kibbutz to honor her differently: by creating an
installation composed of fabrics adorned with Hebrew letters. In nature, the materials and mystical
qualities of the Hebrew letters are further animated by vagaries of wind and light, both attributes
associated with Her presence.
North-Hampton-based ceramic artist EMMETT LEADER created an intricate gateway for
the 2.5 acre organic garden that The Jewish Farm School’s intentional community is
developing day by day. This gateway, consisting of an arch that holds five beautiful
friezes and 15 foot poles braided together, was dedicated on our Open Studio day on
May 12th.
Artist Statement: Gateway - Emmett Leader
My artwork, which for many years has been inspired by Jewish ritual, narratives, and historical material
culture, where the relationship of human beings to one another, the land, and to G-d is the primary
focus. While building a gateway can potentially serve a wide range of purposes, there were primary
considerations that motivated my design. First, as I mentioned above, it is a transitional /sacred space
within a farm/community and one is invited to experience that in both a Jewish and personal context. It
is also a functional gateway in the sense that it marks an opening through which people, animals and
tractors must pass in order to go into the farm, or at selected times, where machinery can be denied
entry.
In this gateway, I created large scale carved clay tiles that have imagery and text, laying claim to the
importance of the visual in the human experience and also very importantly to imagery as a portal to
Jewish spirituality. The text incorporated into this gateway are the first two and last two lines from a
quote of Rabbi Eleazar:
Where there is no Torah, there is no derekh eretz/decent, cultured behavior;
where there is no derekh eretz, there is no Torah.
Where there is no wisdom, there is no fear/reverence of God;
where there is no fear/reverence of God, there is no wisdom.
Where there is no understanding, there is no knowledge;
where there is no knowledge, there is no understanding.
Where there is no kemah/meal/flour, there is no Torah*;
where there is no Torah, there is no kemah/meal/flour.**
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Art Kibbutz: Jewish Environmental/Land Art Exhibition and Residency
Pirke Avot 3:17
The imagery carved into the tiles speak to the uniquely human experience of growing grain and
transforming it into bread. Additional imagery speak to other species coexisting and foraging for their
food. Details reference Jewish practices related to our agriculturally based history as well as the shelters
that we build for our own protection. Included as well is a reference to the homes that we have built for
an animal that we have been intertwined with, both practically and metaphorically, for millennia- the
dove/pigeon.
The wood for the gateway is from locust trees that he cut on his land. In deciding to work with them he
learned to use what is at hand, experiencing it’s abundance or scarcity, it’s ease and it’s resistance to
being shaped- allowing the qualities and potential of the local material to influence in it’s own unique
way.
CYNTHIA BETH RUBIN began experimenting with digital images in 1984,
recently shifting focus from explorations of vestiges human history into
conversations with Nature. Rubin’s work has been shown at numerous editions
of ISEA, ArCade and SIGGRAPH and other international venues. She is affiliated
with the Rhode Island School of Design. Music is by Bob Gluck, a composer and
performer of music for piano and interactive electronics, crossing boundaries
between electroacoustic and jazz traditions. He is also a professor and director of
the Electronic Music Studio at the University at Albany and director of the
Electronic Music Foundation. Vocals are by Zoe Zak.
Artist Statement: Eden Waters: Cynthia Beth Rubin
CYNTHIA BETH RUBIN began her project EDEN WATERS at Eden Village in 2013. Collecting samples of
water from various streams on site, she took her jars of water to the Rhode Island School of Design
Nature Lab, and used a high powered microscope to examine and record the movement of life in tiny
drops of water. The resulting micro-videos, as well as real world video, are both modified and intensely
layered, resulting in imagery with a distinctive aesthetic.
Materials: various digital prints, video, and augmented reality imagery viewable by smart phone and
tablet.
Imagine life as a microscopic aquatic creature in the season of beginnings. The layers of teaming life
represent the emergence of life in the early spring of our Earth. They also simulate the imagined
experience of swimming through the water, as well as the artist’s own experience of focusing through the
microscope, going from mud to discovering amazing lifeforms, to later viewing only bacteria as the
freshwater plankton disappeared in the warmth of the laboratory.
Augmented Reality, video, with music by the composer Bob Gluck and vocals by Zoe Zak, all serve to
engage the viewer in a dialogue with the hidden life in our water. The objective is not representation of
visual details, rather it is the representation of sensation. Looking through the microscope organisms
dart across the field of vision so quickly that it is impossible to plan for their appearance.
Life is everywhere, even in the murkiest of waters. Augmented Reality prompts viewers to explore, to
slow down and contemplate, and to engage the mediated experience being in the woods, and coming
across a stream, and then somehow entering the secret world of the stream. Eden Waters invites viewers
to enter the world of muddy water. It is a reflection on the larger meanings of life, as it reveals the
hidden but vital microscopic creatures who comprise the most basic part of our food chain and our
world.
ELYSSA WORTZMAN is pursuing a D.Min on the topic of the use of art in Jewish Spiritual
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Art Kibbutz: Jewish Environmental/Land Art Exhibition and Residency
Direction with teens/tweens. At Art Kibbutz she explored the role of intentionality
(kavanah) in the creative process. She produced a new body of work that re-connected
her to her roots as a landscape artist yet in a more contemporary, conceptual way.
Artist Statement: Foraging for Manna - Elyssa Wortzman
Elyssa Wortzman is an artist, Jewish Spiritual Director and developer of award winning Jewish cultural
programs. In Foraging For Manna, Wortzman explores a process at the nexus of art and spiritual
direction, bringing awareness and meditation practices to the art-making process. Based on a Talmudic
midrash explaining manna as the food that “draws out the heart”, Wortzman journeyed into the forest to
forage for manna, spiritual sustenance that derives from the environment. Using the map of Eden
Village as the underlying image, Wortzman created a collection of mixed media works that document this
process, exploring our footprint on the landscape and the landscape’s imprint on us. By bringing
awareness to and cultivating trust in the environment, she could gather only what was needed ( manna),
developing an individual understanding of environmental sustainability.
Wortzman also used her dance background and experience with Authentic Movement in Shira Dicker's
Transcendental Trope Performance, which combined spontaneous movement, Torah reading and music.
DEVORA NEUMARK (Montreal) and DEBORAH MARGO (Ottawa) created PRESENT WITH
THE WIND during the first session of Art Kibbutz May 1 to 7, 2013. Utilizing organic
parchment paper, thread and materials found in the forest, this installation,
intentionally temporary is intended to suggest the connections between Heaven and
Earth. The locality informs both structure and placement: the contents all come from
the surrounding floor and flora. The placement of the ten parchment membranes
hanging around the lakeside are moved by the sun and wind from dawn to dawn.
Inspired by the work of James Turrell and Sook Jin Jo is intended to encourage
contemplation of the connections between heaven and earth in the week before
Shavuot. More
Artist Statement: Present with the Wind - Devora Neumark & Deborah Margo
Present with the Wind is a collaborative work created by artists Devora Neumark (Montreal) and
Deborah Margo (Ottawa) during the first session of Art Kibbutz, May 1 to 7, 2013. Materials: organic
parchment paper, thread and found materials from the forest
In making the work, the artists considered the specificity of place and Gregory Bateson’s ideas about
artistic engagement and beauty, which provide “a route into primary process whereby the buried
wisdom, the otherwise inaccessible responsiveness, can be accessed and utilized” to live with greater
awareness about the interdependence of all sentient beings, places and things.
Inspired by the work of such artists as James Turrell and Sook Jin Jo and the Jewish teachings about the
particular potency of prayer during Shavuot, this temporary installation suggests the connection between
the heavens and the earth. The local environment informs its structure and placement: the movement of
the sun from dawn to dusk, the force of the wind, the forest cycles are all reflected in the 10 parchment
membranes and their contents.
Present with the Wind assumes and asserts the importance of kavanah in activating beauty’s power for
healing our relationship with the earth and all of life. This co-creative project, with its deliberate
emphasis on the public value of beauty, aims to engage the community of practitioners assembled for
the Environmental/Eco/Land Art Residency in a deliberate contemplation.
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Art Kibbutz: Jewish Environmental/Land Art Exhibition and Residency
PAUL SOLOMON, trans-disciplinary artist and university professor is looking to be part of
the Art Kibbutz community engaged with collaborative creative thought, action, and
spiritual questioning. Art Kibbutz NY seems to be the perfect occasion to build
community. He leads Art Kibbutz’s Programming Committee. Boundaries of Eden is new
work by Paul R. Solomon that captures the landscape from multiple points of view in a
single exposure; a tour de force enabled by photographing with an iPhone. Boundaries
of Eden was first exhibited in Chicago by Brave New Art World, at Canvas Chicago,
December, 2013.
About the prints: The prints were made by the photographer on Hahnemühle paper.
They are archival digital prints 51” in width, produced in limited editions.
Artist Statement: Boundaries of Eden – Paul Solomon
As a boy, photography was the means for me to grapple with visual complexities; to seize pieces of the
world and make sense of the whole. With Boundaries of Eden I try to analyze these conundrums, and
find a spontaneous way of shooting that reawakens the wonder I experienced as a child.
I seek to convey a dialogue about edges and limits; tension between ‘natural’ places and interventions of
‘man,’ and Eden in a biblical sense. The photographs also reference motion pictures. Similar to cinema,
these images, stitched together sequentially in the camera, demand that the eye travel back and forth;
fragments become a whole. They are intended as well to resemble traditional scrolls. These panoramas
tell an inherent narrative without use of text, in contrast to the Torah scrolls I became familiar with from
a young age that are purely text. The photographs also reflect a fascination with cartography and how
NASA satellites transmit data. Digital artifacts, such as the black data voids, become part of the
composition. The camera in the iPhone is relatively primitive – much like many early cameras. There is
no way to set exposure time, aperture, resolution, or white balance. Yet the accelerometer and
gyroscope, the native iOS, and superb miniaturized optics in a device that fits in one’s back pocket,
permits the making of images that are complex and full of meaning.
About the curator:
Dutch-born New York based YONA VERWER is on the Advisory Board of Art Kibbutz. As
founder/director of the Jewish Art Salon she has curated and organized dozens of art
exhibits and events at venues such as the Yeshiva University Museum, the Holocaust
Memorial Center, Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, Flomenhaft Gallery, Manhattan
JCC, Tribeca Synagogue for the Arts, and the Anne Frank Center USA. She has lectured at
The Jewish Museum, Columbia/Barnard Kraft Center, 14 Street Y, and the Educational
Alliance.
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