Wonder and Discovery

These mysterious objects are the sculptures of Avital Sheffer.

These vessels put me in mind of the sense of wonder and discovery you get from traveling to a new city and looking at the old buildings out of the bus window. Once you let your mind free on Avital's forms the layers of meaning keep revealing themselves in a process akin to archeaology, what at first seem like an contemporary anthropological vessels, shifts to reveal a sarcophagus, which in turn becomes an ancient religous artifact. I am not a fan of clever post-modernism but these forms utilize the playful aspects of the movement, overlaying meaning between the form and the surface in a beautiful, poetic way.



Avital has combined many references in these forms, their meaning constantly shifts from being a form about the body with delicate henna tattoo script, to invoking the ancient monuments of Avital's Middle- Eastern heritage. The "writing" adds another layer of mystery to the vessels as the intricate delicacy of the surface and grounded strength of the form play against each other. The use of the printing process is very interesting with it's associations of archaic texts, forgotten and dusty, newly uncovered from an ancient tomb.

Avital has a new website.