I treated the box as an objet trouve, a modest thing with some forgotten purpose in its past. Upon being discovered, it brings to mind associations, and memories which unfold and spread out when the box is opened. Part object, part landscape, the image within the box does not recall a specific locus; rather, it reminds us of things that we know are memories. But these are stored in such distant lands that they cannot be conjured, they can only be gazed over.
Category: Israel
Monument to the 20th Century
If We Take the Thorns Out…
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I treated the box as an objet trouve, a modest thing with some forgotten purpose in its past. Upon being discovered, it brings to mind associations, and memories which unfold and spread out when the box is opened. Part object, part landscape, the image within the box does not recall a specific locus; rather, it reminds us of things that we know are memories. But these are stored in such distant lands that they cannot be conjured, they can only be gazed over.
The Silver Platter
Beyond the Box
The Private Cosmic Library
The “Private-Cosmic Library” probes three possibilities for encoding conscious and public databases along a time axis.
The disk is made of painted cast aluminum, actualizing modern types of codes, encoding information on computerized disks, accumulating familiar signs from the language of electronics within and metaphysical signs in personal-code rhythm language.
The libraries appearing in the brown photographs characterize hundreds of years of book printing, a whole web of cultures and memories open to intimate browsing and learning from generation to generation. The “Private-Cosmic Library” is expressed by the simple fact that these are photographs of the libraries in my home with a portrait assimilated therein and many books in the field of art and metaphysics.
The sculpture-object itself opens as a book closet and alternatively, appears to be a small shrine by virtue of the crystal pyramid and three quartz columns.
In mineral terminology, these types of crystals are used for energy acceleration. According to mythology in the culture of pre-historic Atlantis, all information encoding was carried out energetically upon crystals. In light of the reawakening of the effectiveness of natural crystals, advanced technological achievements are brought closer to the furthest past.
In the cloak of time, past, present and future take place upon a circular axis, and the internal memory is the collective memory. With the hope that despite the physical miniature dimension of the work, the work will expand itself towards the open space.
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Psalms to Ellul
My work comes from a very far and deep past including the meaning of personal memories and a hard political situation which is part of me. I try to express my existence, tough and sensitive sensations, by different elements used in this work.
Coffer Nephesh
The box, covered with lead, contains the soil of Israel. The phrase coffer nephesh in Hebrew, refers to ransom. Literally the word coffer means ransom and the word nephesh means soul.
COFFER: Like all objects whose essential quality is that of containing, it sometimes acquires the symbolic character of a heart, the brain or the maternal womb. The heart, the first of these meanings, is a figure characteristic of the symbolism of Romanesque art.
In a broader sense, receptacles which can be closed up have, from the earliest times, represented all things that may hold secrets, such as the Ark of the Covenant of the Hebrews, or Pandora’s box.
(J. E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, New York)
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Booby trap/
Mother lode/
Aesthetic trap/
A bird in the
hand is worth two
in the bush…
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A Letter to My Mother
The box contains notes with words which were never said to her mother.
Dear Mother,
When I was eighteen, I bought you, with my first salary, a wooden jewelry box. You still keep it, treasuring it. Now, twenty-five years later, I’m giving you this box which treasures words. These are all the words I could have told you during our lives together, but wasn’t able to. These are words I should have told you, dear mother.
Here are all the missing words, just for you. It’s a wonderful opportunity to write them down, to feel their sound within my heart. To prepare a special gift for a special woman: my mother.
Your loving daughter,
Shuli Nachshon
The Women's Voices: Shuli Nachshon, Israel from WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS on Vimeo.
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“Send me silence in a box from a far-away country.”
-Yona Wallach
Fire
Fire is an important symbol in the Jewish culture. There are many passages in the Bible condemning pagan ritual sacrifices at altars in the forest, and extolling proper burnt sacrifices to the One God:
“…then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering…” (Psalm LI: 21)
There are many holidays in which fire plays an important part: Lag BaOmer, when bonfires are made as an echo of the signal fires lit against the Romans during the Bar Kochba rebellion; Hannuka, when the miracle of a lamp containing oil enough for a day burned for eight; the tradition of “soul candles,” which burn for 24 hours on the anniversary of the death of a close family member.
But perhaps the most constant and important fire in Judaism is the Sabbath candles, to be lit on Friday eve by every daughter of Israel. I see the Sabbath candles as a symbol of home and the woman’s duty and privilege to protect and care for her family, physically and spiritually.
My piece contains an unlit Sabbath candle to remind myself that no matter how much women expand our potential as human beings, the role of homemaker is a very profound commitment. It provides the foundation of faith upon which miracles can grow.