Devora Newmark and Deborah Margo: Present with the Wind
Materials: organic parchment paper, thread and found materials from the forest
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. 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.
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. 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.
