Projection-image
Written by: Revital Gal, owner and curator of the “Enga” gallery.
The magnificent works of Noon Himmelman bring to expression her many different and varied worlds. Nun is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Technion. During the twenty years since graduating, she has been involved in architecture in all its branches.
Nun’s mosaic works and the fact that she was an architect reminded us of Antonio Gaudi’s marvelous creations and work (1852-1926). Gaudí, the architect and perhaps the world’s greatest mosaic artist, whose wonderful works glorify Barcelona. His work is classified as part of the modernist style of the Art Nouveau movement in architecture, a movement that marked the beginning of the modern era in architecture and its unique style is named “Gaudí style”.
Gaudi used colorful porcelain fragments and created beautiful images from the natural world, especially influenced by the Catholic iconography.
On the other hand, Nun sees in her works other sources of inspiration. The African masks of Picasso, which he created at the beginning of the twentieth century (1907-1908), have a great influence. Picasso created a new language in Tire through which he disassembled and formed forms according to his imagination. Picasso was influenced by African statues and masks and his paintings of that period have sculptural qualities. Other sources of influence and inspiration are the Austrian Jewish painter Hundertwasser (1928-2000), which impresses with colorfulness, freedom and borderlessness in terms of color combinations and accents, also Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) an Austrian as well, another important source of inspiration in the texture of shape and color.
The artist also interprets the colors and colorfulness of Israeli artists such as Zaritsky (1891-1985), Steimatzky (1908-1989) and their generation as sources of inspiration for her work.
Nun’s works express her rich spiritual world, Buddhism and Theoism, and in particular the works derive from subjects taken from Yemima studies, which are based on Kabbalistic concepts.
All these exciting cargo find an outlet in her works. The works deal with the questions of fracture and correction, and in the seconds in our lives (in Hebrew and English ‘seconds’ derives from the language of duality as in 2nd). From the day we have an opinion, we must decide and choose, give and take, while we strive to maintain physical and mental equilibrium. To seek balance between matter and spirit, with that which occurs between climaxis and the inevitable falls. Life in a relationship, family and society and on the other hand solitude and uniqueness.
The works present a contradiction. At first glance, the colors resemble a pile of miraculous candies that tempt the viewer to come to touch and reach into it, but as one approaches and descends into detail we discover that we have fallen into a trap.
Thoughts...
Illuminated and imprisoned
The masks in this series present the dialogue between human desire for enlightenment – recognition – and the confinement within that enlightenment that we wish for. Such enlightenment is sought and paid at the cost of incarceration in its own dazzle. People aspire to be at the height of enlightenment and recognition, but when they arrive at the “Golden Palace” they discover that they are imprisoned and remain in prison. It is a life of doom that is subject to the rule of power and detached from their personal, social and mental freedom. The mask shows the desired stretch of the figure to its maximum size. But this stretch lies within bars of light rays, when the boundary is not clear. Within the lattice of rays of light rays can also be interpreted as a sieve that seeks a balance between freedom and commitment, between the individual and the self. This is the gap that is inherent in all of us between the child and the adult, between the person responsible for the break through, between arrogance and modesty. Two opposite forces imprisoned and battling in the soul. One of the statues is a bird figure – she too wants to fly but is trapped in a frame. It has openings only at the top above its head, but the title is also a crown, which requires control over itself and its surroundings. There is a dilemma here expressed between responsibility and control and the desire to escape to freedom.
A figure of melody
Here, too, the figure is trapped in a triangle that creates power – the “feminine” part of the Star of David symbolizing power in the duality between the upper and lower triangles. Inside are the crown hairs of her head. The crown symbolizes the melody of the fire that tries to control the melody of thought that appears on a regular basis like uncontrolled clouds. So are feelings coming and going, good and bad, uncontrollable, sometimes like spineless noodles.
Carrying opposites
“Carrying of the opposites” is a concept deeply rooted in Kabalistic scripture, such as The Book of Mediocrity, The Book of the Beholders, etc. The use of the concept of “carrying of the opposites” describes a dialogue between matter and form, between the physical and the spiritual, the material and the spirit. But the dialogue is not about opposing forces such as darkness and light. Rather, the dialogue looks at the amount of light within darkness, and the amount of darkness within light. Two opposites that do not stand in opposition to each other, but rather create a complement. The brilliance of light would be powerful in the darkness, whereas in the light it would be meaningless. Darkness in itself has no dynamic interest, but when we become accustomed to it we see the light and enlightenment within it. The darkness in the light, the light in the dark, the material in the soul, the soul in matter. Sourcing from the metaphor of “carrying of the opposites” comes the story of Adam and Eve. She is communicative, unattended, not listening and not listening, but pretending. He is frozen, taking care of the facade of control, hiding fears. The hollow figures sit on chairs, raised. Their condition is a kind of touch-not touching the upholstery. They try to communicate with one another but do not believe in the media. There is no effort, no effort. Although all the characters without exception are smiling, but the smile is external and pretended. The only overt communication is pride, which is symbolized by the antenna of their heads, through which they try to absorb what is happening in an unmediated way, via satellite, and also when there is no choice. The material is permanent. The cushioned chairs are colorful in many different materials, creating abundance but not awareness of abundance and presence, but rather a sense of absence.
The child image
The child’s desire to mold himself while climbing out of the frame. However, the child cannot exist without the framework, even though he did not choose it and it was forced upon him.
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