Gateway - Emmett Leader
Ceramic artist Emmett Leader has created a beautifulgateway for the 2.5 acre organic garden that The Jewish Farm School's intentional community is developing day by day. This gateway consisting of an arch that holds five beautiful friezes and 15 foot poles braided together was dedicated on our Open Studio day on May 12th, when more than eighty people -- friends, journalists, families, came to spend the day, visiting artists' studios, enjoying the beauty of the awakening landscape, appreciating what some of them have helped create with their generous donations, and all getting to know Eden Village.
Personal Statement:
The concept of the farm gateway was driven by a direct and personal response towards the guiding principals of Eden Village Camp and the organization running the farm there, The Jewish Farm School. What I saw, simply put, was a farm and community being created where agriculture, creation, community and celebration was inspired by Jewish texts and custom in way that resonated deeply within me.
My artwork, which for many years has been inspired by Jewish ritual, narratives, and historical material culture, where the relationship of human beings to one another, the land, and to G-d is the primary focus. For me, to create a gateway, a transitional and sacred space where one has the opportunity to consider and work with some of these questions seemed like an obvious project to design and build.
While the gateway can potentially serve a wide range of purposes, there were primary considerations that motivated my design. First, as I mentioned above, it is a transitional /sacred space within a farm/community and one is invited to experience that in both a Jewish and personal context. It is also a functional gateway in the sense that it marks an opening through which people, animals and tractors must pass in order to go into the farm, or at selected times, where machinery can be denied entry.
In this gateway, I created large scale carved clay tiles that have imagery and text, laying claim to the importance of the visual in the human experience and also very importantly to imagery as a portal to Jewish spirituality. The text incorporated into this gateway are the first two and last two lines from a quote of Rabbi Eleazar :
Where there is no Torah, there is no derekh eretz/decent, cultured behavior;
where there is no derekh eretz, there is no Torah.
Where there is no wisdom, there is no fear/reverence of God;
where there is no fear/reverence of God, there is no wisdom.
Where there is no understanding, there is no knowledge;
where there is no knowledge, there is no understanding.
Where there is no kemah/meal/flour, there is no Torah*;
where there is no Torah, there is no kemah/meal/flour.**
Pirke Avot 3:17
The imagery carved into the tiles speak to the uniquely human experience of growing grain and transforming it into bread. Additional imagery speak to other species coexisting and foraging for their food. Details reference Jewish practices related to our agriculturally based history as well as the shelters that we build for our own protection. Included as well is a reference to the homes that we have built for an animal that we have been intertwined with, both practically and metaphorically, for millennia- the dove/pigeon.
The wood for the gateway is from locust trees that I cut on my land. In deciding to work with them I have learned to use what is at hand, experiencing it’s abundance or scarcity, it’s ease and it’s resistance to being shaped- allowing the qualities and potential of the local material to influence in it’s own unique way.
I was especially excited to be able to install and finish the gateway during the Art Kibbutz residency- to be able to expand on the conversation that I’ve started with the gateway as well as learn what others were thinking and creating!
Personal Statement:
The concept of the farm gateway was driven by a direct and personal response towards the guiding principals of Eden Village Camp and the organization running the farm there, The Jewish Farm School. What I saw, simply put, was a farm and community being created where agriculture, creation, community and celebration was inspired by Jewish texts and custom in way that resonated deeply within me.
My artwork, which for many years has been inspired by Jewish ritual, narratives, and historical material culture, where the relationship of human beings to one another, the land, and to G-d is the primary focus. For me, to create a gateway, a transitional and sacred space where one has the opportunity to consider and work with some of these questions seemed like an obvious project to design and build.
While the gateway can potentially serve a wide range of purposes, there were primary considerations that motivated my design. First, as I mentioned above, it is a transitional /sacred space within a farm/community and one is invited to experience that in both a Jewish and personal context. It is also a functional gateway in the sense that it marks an opening through which people, animals and tractors must pass in order to go into the farm, or at selected times, where machinery can be denied entry.
In this gateway, I created large scale carved clay tiles that have imagery and text, laying claim to the importance of the visual in the human experience and also very importantly to imagery as a portal to Jewish spirituality. The text incorporated into this gateway are the first two and last two lines from a quote of Rabbi Eleazar :
Where there is no Torah, there is no derekh eretz/decent, cultured behavior;
where there is no derekh eretz, there is no Torah.
Where there is no wisdom, there is no fear/reverence of God;
where there is no fear/reverence of God, there is no wisdom.
Where there is no understanding, there is no knowledge;
where there is no knowledge, there is no understanding.
Where there is no kemah/meal/flour, there is no Torah*;
where there is no Torah, there is no kemah/meal/flour.**
Pirke Avot 3:17
The imagery carved into the tiles speak to the uniquely human experience of growing grain and transforming it into bread. Additional imagery speak to other species coexisting and foraging for their food. Details reference Jewish practices related to our agriculturally based history as well as the shelters that we build for our own protection. Included as well is a reference to the homes that we have built for an animal that we have been intertwined with, both practically and metaphorically, for millennia- the dove/pigeon.
The wood for the gateway is from locust trees that I cut on my land. In deciding to work with them I have learned to use what is at hand, experiencing it’s abundance or scarcity, it’s ease and it’s resistance to being shaped- allowing the qualities and potential of the local material to influence in it’s own unique way.
I was especially excited to be able to install and finish the gateway during the Art Kibbutz residency- to be able to expand on the conversation that I’ve started with the gateway as well as learn what others were thinking and creating!
