Project for a sculpture in Paris square – Jerusalem
Location: Paris square, Jerusalem
Materials: Three cypress trees, steel structure, earth colored stucco.
Dimensions: 11 m high (including the trees)
Project History: 1994 - At the request of the municipal public art committee; planning and maquette
Key Meanings: Urban symbolic focal point which connects to the past
Artist Statement: Pope Sixtus V, understood the potential of planting visible vertical focal points which mark the urban Axes of Renaissance Rome. Ever since, European (and non European) cities have continuously used this method to create distinguishable urban space. 19 century Paris for example, produced Bastille, Concorde, Vendome and many others. Paris square is such an intersection of three major axes of central Jerusalem. In keeping with local character, the vertical focal point proposed here consists of cypress trees and earth, materials which have always existed at this location and can evoke memories of an ancient past.
Key Meanings: Gravity and growth, Slanted axis of the world, existence in motion
Artist Statement: Clockwork Cedar deals with the concepts of Time and Gravity and with the ancient notion of the axis of the world. It alters mechanically the conformity of the Cedar tree to the laws of gravity which make it grow naturally in a vertical direction. The tree can keep growing in a slanted position, only by its perpetual clockwise movement. The sculpture is closely connected to the reality of ‘existence in motion’ characteristic of the world we live in today, an existence which destroys old equilibriums while it can perhaps create new ones instead.
Project for a sculpture The Yitzhak Rabin Building for Jewish Studies
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus.
Location: The main Atrium of the Rabin Building – Mt. Scopus
Materials: Oak tree, Lotem bushes, concrete pillar plated with stone, steel structure covered with landscape colored stucco
Dimensions: 12 m high including the tree, Atrium height – 20m
Project History: 2004 planning and maquette
Key Meanings: Restoration of the imaginary former landscape before the building’s construction.
Artist Statement: The sculpture is composed of a 8 m high stone plated pillar - similar to the building's supporting pillars - and on top of it a sculpted landscape fragment from which grow a Tabor Oak tree and Lotem bushes. The topographic height of the sculpted landscape segment is 810 above sea level – restoring the original landscape of the mountain before the building’s construction. The plants recall the vegetation of the neighboring historical Botanical Garden – planted in 1931.
Project for the preservation of the ancient Ficus sycomorus tree
In the Holon Junction (Tel Aviv)
Location: The Holon Junction (south Tel Aviv)
Materials: e Ficus sycomorus, white concrete small tower,
Dimensions: 25 m high including the tree
Project History: 2005 - planning and committees
Key Meanings: Conservation of an ancient tree, conservation of the memory of an historical junction of roads, high speed sculptural situation
Artist Statement: ‘Places’ – physical and mental locations which enroot man in his environment - are greatly endangered in our time. Since urban development is dynamic and related to urgent needs, conservation of ‘Places’ cannot always mean the safeguarding of their material state but could be achieved also otherwise by a creative process. Preservation of the ancient Ficus sycomorus tree of the Holon Junction and its placement above the many levels of transportation planned for the place, can keep a memory of the historical junction of roads. The transplanted tree in its surprising location can create a new and contemporary sculptural situation, which will be accessible in high speeds as well.
Project for the creation of a monument for the 50th anniversary to the foundation of Ashdod
Location: Hayovel plaza, south Ashdod
Materials: Steel, stainless steel cables, ground stone with pigments, white concrete.
Dimensions: 12,000 sqm
Project History: 2006 planning and maquette
Key Meanings: Monument connecting modern and ancient Ashdod, Crane reminding of the port and suggesting an ancient boat.
Artist Statement: A successful monument, says the French philosopher Francois Choay reminds of the past while creating an effect at present - a living memory. The monument proposed creates a garden of local plants, from the center of which rises a 29m high slanted crane which holds a 5m diameter pendulum. Located near the ancient port of Ashdod, and not too far from the modern one, the crane reminds of the port but also suggests the mast of an ancient ship. The monument may give a visual and symbolic expression to the urban process of enrooting of the new city in its place and its connection to the ancient city and to the Mediterranean sea.
