I have an obsessive need to combine perceptually irreconcilable things. Hence also the combination of “hi-tech” techniques (such as 3D printing and laser cutting) with more traditional “low-tech” methods (e.g. plaster casts, concrete casts, and hewing) in my work, which spawns a hybrid; a new language, stemming from my complex identity as a “black Israeli Jew.” This new language is the essence of an identity at once current and traditional; an identity that is conspicuously absent in the field of art, and must be rendered present.

Alongside my fascination with materials, I have always engaged in painting. Recently I have been creating painterly reliefs which may be regarded as paintings made of sculptural materials. The creative process is set in motion by an attraction to certain materials and the desire to combine them. Next I investigate the conduct of these materials, and how I can manipulate and adapt them to my needs. Subsequently, I explore elements with which to connect Western-modern technology with analogue-traditional technology, until finally everything comes together to form one work;a different, unique material.

The black-African world has furnished me with formal and thematic motifs, which recur in my works. Authenticity is thus preserved even when combined with modern technology, and so is the affinity with the culture from which I hail. The ethnic-African language influences my painterly language, linking it consciously and artistically to the language of the originally-“black” street painting. It relates to the politics of identities, while seeking to challenge the classical canon. I also relate to it through the desire to decipher and fathom what place my art and I can take in international culture in general, and in Israeli culture in particular. These questions are the most personal and the most public at the same time; ostensibly narrative, but also entirely formalistic.

Uncovering and discovery in my work always stem from observation rather than conscious search. As an artist, it may be harder to wait and discover, but this process makes the discovery ever more meaningful and authentic. I “dig” in the substance and create my images in the material almost automatically. Through detached, industrious, intuitive work, I let the subconscious come to the fore and reveal itself in the work. Through my art I reconnect with my roots, as images related to different relationships, to my immigration journey, and so on, come up while working. Some of the images are associated with harsh experiences of violence and trauma, but their artistic stylization allows both the viewer and me to approach and converse with them. The exposure of the image is thus not a mere technical act, but an act of introduction, summoning things to personal as well as collective consciousness.