Installation Inspired by Tobi Kahn's " SAPHYR " at Jewish Museum

Wednesday, 26 April 2006 08:37

New York City - The Jewish Museum is presenting a new multi-part installation inspired by artist Tobi Kahn’s work, Saphyr, through October 22, 2006. The actual work, an omer calendar created in 2002, has just been installed in the contemporary gallery of The Jewish Museum’s permanent exhibition, Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey. An interactive version of Saphyr is available to visitors in the gallery on a laptop computer and on The Jewish Museum’s Web site at www.thejewishmuseum.org.

Saphyr is a 7' x 7' sculptural grid with 49 pegs that mark the 49-day interval between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, between the commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. This 49-day period begins on the second day of Passover – when an omer , or measure of barley, was offered at the Temple in Jerusalem – and ends on the day the wheat harvest began. Symbolically, the time between the two holidays traces the path from physical freedom (the Exodus) to spiritual freedom attained by the acceptance of the law. Special calendars are used to count off the seven weeks of the omer.  Painter and sculptor Tobi Kahn has created an evocative version of the omer calendar. Individually carved pegs are set into a frame-like holder, and each is numbered to follow a particular sequence. The pegs were conceived as miniature houses, each with a unique shape. The interior of each of the compartments, designed to hold the sculpted counting pegs, is painted gold to symbolize the spiritual journey embodied in the interval between the two holidays. The tactile nature of the pegs and the constantly changing composition involve the user in the performance of the ritual.

The interactive version will allow visitors to “count” the omer in two ways. They will be able to drag that day’s peg onto the board, adding the pegs one by one until the board is complete or to place that day’s peg on top of the board, highlighting the peg. Video interviews with Tobi Kahn will further illuminate his artistic decisions.

Tobi Kahn is a painter and sculptor whose work has been shown in over 40 solo exhibitions and 60 museum and group shows. For thirty years, Kahn has been steadfast in the pursuit of his distinct vision and persistent in his commitment to the redemptive possibilities of art. In paint, stone and bronze, he has explored the correspondence between the intimate and monumental. While his early works drew on the tradition of American Romantic landscape painting, his more recent pieces reflect his fascination with contemporary science, inspired by the micro-images of cell formations and satellite photography. Kahn's belief in the spiritual capacity of art is intrinsic to his work. Emily Bilski discusses Kahn's ceremonial art in Objects of the Spirit: Ritual and the Art of Tobi Kahn. Solo museum exhibitions of his work include Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses, Correspondence and Avoda: Objects of the Spirit . His work is in the collections of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Skirball Cultural Center and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Born in 1952, Tobi Kahn received an M.F.A. from the Pratt Institute and lives in New York.

The interactive version of the omer counter, Saphyr , was made possible by grants from Targum Shlishi, a Raquel and Aryeh Rubin Foundation, and Daniel and Elizabeth Sawicki. High resolution photographs by Ardon Bar Hama were provided through support from George S. Blumenthal.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection. Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 25,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media. Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent United States institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

Visit: www.thejewishmuseum.org