Tribute to Moshe Castel
mixed media on fabric
[150x115cm]
I have created a 6-panel mixed media wall work.
In reviewing Castel’s oeuvre, I chose several of the elements which recur in his mature work: layering, collage and texture, but also ancient Hebrew texts; a restricted colour palette; and hanging different-sized elements together to form one work.
In my interpretation I have turned to fabrics, cardboard, gesso and paper in place of ground basalt and canvas, and like Castel, I too have included other materials, in my case: porcelain, earthenware, silver, sequins and thread, giving the work a shallow 3-D depth.
Like Castel, I am relating in this tribute to our layered Jewish national and personal past, represented not only by fragmentary reproductions of our most ancient Hebrew texts- the Dead Sea Scrolls- but also by the two silver discs, which were originally for the dedication of a family Torah scroll. Additionally, and in contrast, I allude to our national and personal spiritual identity, through the use of gold, silver and sequins, reminiscent of the Heavenly Bodies. Furthermore, I have used fragments of clays, along with browns and reds, to represent the earth and our blood, our physicality and materiality; though we may dream, we are kept tied to this world.