I AM FREEDOM
Paintings examine the boundaries between visual and non-visual perception through the union of Braille poetry and painting. Nachum has developed a process which he sculpts raised Braille cells on the surface of the canvas.
Written by the artist, poems explore the conflict between the instinctive and the demands of civilization. Observers become participants and use multiple senses.
Nachum sees the work as an “eye opener”, a vehicle to allow viewers to confront their own existential apprehensions. Subjects vision is often obscured, representing that man’s “blindness” caused by displaced values and desire. One recurring subject is the child with a gold crown covering his or her eyes. (If They Let Us, 2016, ANTI, Album Cover, RIHANNA).
Paintings examine the boundaries between visual and non-visual perception through the union of Braille poetry and painting. Nachum has developed a process which he sculpts raised Braille cells on the surface of the canvas.
Written by the artist, poems explore the conflict between the instinctive and the demands of civilization. Observers become participants and use multiple senses.
Nachum sees the work as an “eye opener”, a vehicle to allow viewers to confront their own existential apprehensions. Subjects vision is often obscured, representing that man’s “blindness” caused by displaced values and desire. One recurring subject is the child with a gold crown covering his or her eyes. (If They Let Us, 2016, ANTI, Album Cover, RIHANNA).
FLIP PAINTINGS
Flip paintings refrence conceptual framework. The work is viewed from the side that is typically obscured or considered the back of the canvas. A process which the artists refers to as “dematerialization”. The painted image now faces the wall, and the back of the canvas now faces the viewer; on the side visible, the artist sculpts Braille text which describes or unviels the hidden image.
In “Moonlight” 2019, the Braille translates as: “A naked man dancing” Viewers must use their imagination. Experiences are individualized as each viewer internally constructs an image or scene unique to his/her imagination.
As a form of institutional critique the artists starts the work and allows the viewer to complete it. The viewers response is a direct reflection of cultural values and societal impacts.
Flip paintings refrence conceptual framework. The work is viewed from the side that is typically obscured or considered the back of the canvas. A process which the artists refers to as “dematerialization”. The painted image now faces the wall, and the back of the canvas now faces the viewer; on the side visible, the artist sculpts Braille text which describes or unviels the hidden image.
In “Moonlight” 2019, the Braille translates as: “A naked man dancing” Viewers must use their imagination. Experiences are individualized as each viewer internally constructs an image or scene unique to his/her imagination.
As a form of institutional critique the artists starts the work and allows the viewer to complete it. The viewers response is a direct reflection of cultural values and societal impacts.
INSTALLATION AND SCULPTURE
MENTAL ROTATIONS
These experimental paintings utilize art, historical elements, conceptualism, and interactivity to explore complex psych-visual factors like sensory substitution, hypnagogic imagery, internal representations, and mental rotation.
Nachum investigates visual perception by using himself as a conduit to create paintings that use self-referential content and media as a substitute for the imagined experience. In this series, the artist begins his painting process by rendering a simple geometric form, which he refers to as the “idea”. These shapes serves as basic thought forms meant to evoke sensory qualities the artist wishes the viewer to experience such as weight, height, gravity, and the appearance of light as a material presence.
Once these initial shapes are complete, Nachum begins to work impulsively and freely, as he experiments with various materials and methods, utilizing memories, art history and photographs as stimuli while moving interchangeably between styles to highlight a mix of contrasting traditions and practices. He works alone, erasing, concealing, adding and subtracting⎯ allowing his imagination and memories to take form. The layered detailed surfaces inhabit the uneasy space between narrative and abstract, revealing the animalistic qualities of the inner-self including aggressive, sexual, and spiritual impulses.A method of reference for social constructionism through an abstract process based on reality, knowledge, and trans-historical paradigms.
These experimental paintings utilize art, historical elements, conceptualism, and interactivity to explore complex psych-visual factors like sensory substitution, hypnagogic imagery, internal representations, and mental rotation.
Nachum investigates visual perception by using himself as a conduit to create paintings that use self-referential content and media as a substitute for the imagined experience. In this series, the artist begins his painting process by rendering a simple geometric form, which he refers to as the “idea”. These shapes serves as basic thought forms meant to evoke sensory qualities the artist wishes the viewer to experience such as weight, height, gravity, and the appearance of light as a material presence.
Once these initial shapes are complete, Nachum begins to work impulsively and freely, as he experiments with various materials and methods, utilizing memories, art history and photographs as stimuli while moving interchangeably between styles to highlight a mix of contrasting traditions and practices. He works alone, erasing, concealing, adding and subtracting⎯ allowing his imagination and memories to take form. The layered detailed surfaces inhabit the uneasy space between narrative and abstract, revealing the animalistic qualities of the inner-self including aggressive, sexual, and spiritual impulses.A method of reference for social constructionism through an abstract process based on reality, knowledge, and trans-historical paradigms.
INVISIBLE CHAIR
VIEW PIECE︎
INVISIBLE CHAIR
2019
Lucite and Light
36.28 x 17.50 x 19.65 Inches / 92.15 x 44.45 x 49.91 cm
INVISIBLE CHAIR
2019
Lucite and Light
36.28 x 17.50 x 19.65 Inches / 92.15 x 44.45 x 49.91 cm
FIRE AND ASH
Fire Paintings utilize Braille Poetry and Ash, Braille is sculpted onto canvas and wood frames are burned until charcoal. The paintings are executed with the participation of people who are blind, leaving fingerprints as documentation of human contact. Nachum employs the system of raised Braille cells sculpting them in rectangular columns across the canvas. As collaborators run their fingers from the frame to Braille, evidence of human interaction remains on the canvas. Nachum encourages people to continue touch and interact with the work, breaking the barrier between viewer and “sacred object”. After repeated contact the work evolves and remains always alive. The interaction adds an element of performance; the artist starts a painting and leaves the viewer to complete it.
Using himself as a conduit Nachum blindfolded himself for 196 hours, a period of seven consecutive days. During this period he focused on painting and poetry. He experienced vivid an intense visual hallucinations and periods of complete and total darkness where he felt detached from the physical world. After the first day the hallucinations then became a constant presence. They began with flashes of light and color, and progressed into vivid landscapes, human forms and childhood memories. He describes the experience as spiritual and transformative. It provided him with a deeper understanding of his non-visual senses, and challenged him to offer a way into his work for people who otherwise may never “experience” a painting.
Fire Paintings utilize Braille Poetry and Ash, Braille is sculpted onto canvas and wood frames are burned until charcoal. The paintings are executed with the participation of people who are blind, leaving fingerprints as documentation of human contact. Nachum employs the system of raised Braille cells sculpting them in rectangular columns across the canvas. As collaborators run their fingers from the frame to Braille, evidence of human interaction remains on the canvas. Nachum encourages people to continue touch and interact with the work, breaking the barrier between viewer and “sacred object”. After repeated contact the work evolves and remains always alive. The interaction adds an element of performance; the artist starts a painting and leaves the viewer to complete it.
Using himself as a conduit Nachum blindfolded himself for 196 hours, a period of seven consecutive days. During this period he focused on painting and poetry. He experienced vivid an intense visual hallucinations and periods of complete and total darkness where he felt detached from the physical world. After the first day the hallucinations then became a constant presence. They began with flashes of light and color, and progressed into vivid landscapes, human forms and childhood memories. He describes the experience as spiritual and transformative. It provided him with a deeper understanding of his non-visual senses, and challenged him to offer a way into his work for people who otherwise may never “experience” a painting.
PSEUDOISOCHROMATIC
Pseudoisochromatic is a series of experimental paintings based on Color Vision Tests. Pornographic images are reduced to color field circles to function as “pixels”. Stencils are adhered directly to the canvas surface and once executed precisely in oil the artist peels the stencil to otherwise disguise the perverse and explicit imagery. The artist describes this act of peeling the stencil off of the canvas as if peeling skin off of flesh.
Contrasting colors and complex pictorial scenes invade the viewers space. The paintings provide an acrid sense of humor while exposing societal implications, repressed desires, taboos and the contemporary human obsession with sex.
Pseudoisochromatic is a series of experimental paintings based on Color Vision Tests. Pornographic images are reduced to color field circles to function as “pixels”. Stencils are adhered directly to the canvas surface and once executed precisely in oil the artist peels the stencil to otherwise disguise the perverse and explicit imagery. The artist describes this act of peeling the stencil off of the canvas as if peeling skin off of flesh.
Contrasting colors and complex pictorial scenes invade the viewers space. The paintings provide an acrid sense of humor while exposing societal implications, repressed desires, taboos and the contemporary human obsession with sex.
META
Using himself as a conduit Nachum blindfolded himself for a period of 7 consecutive days. During this period he conducted a series of interviews with people who are blind. As he listened he revisited techniques known as automatic drawing and writing to allow him express his subconscious. The result, a series of representational paintings which transform wild animal specimens to give them new life and new form. The works explore the boundaries between stillness and motion and mortality and aliveness. The dictionary definition of the animal executed in oil is sculpted in Braille onto canvas, a philosophical paradox to the complexity of the painting and to the contextual process.
Using himself as a conduit Nachum blindfolded himself for a period of 7 consecutive days. During this period he conducted a series of interviews with people who are blind. As he listened he revisited techniques known as automatic drawing and writing to allow him express his subconscious. The result, a series of representational paintings which transform wild animal specimens to give them new life and new form. The works explore the boundaries between stillness and motion and mortality and aliveness. The dictionary definition of the animal executed in oil is sculpted in Braille onto canvas, a philosophical paradox to the complexity of the painting and to the contextual process.
RADIANT LIGHT
Paintings examine visual and non-visual perception. The artist sculpts raised Braille cells on the surface of the canvases, the fractured plane serves as a counter balance to the meticulously executed images in oil. Embedded within the confines of a painting are poems which reveal the artists internal conflict between the instinctive and the demands of civilization. The merging of painting and Braille poetry transforms oberservers into participants and requires the use of multiple senses. Nachum sees his work as a vehicle to allow viewers to confront their own existential apprehensions. Nachum often paints figures whose vision is obscured, suggesting that man’s blindness is caused by displaced values and desire.
Paintings examine visual and non-visual perception. The artist sculpts raised Braille cells on the surface of the canvases, the fractured plane serves as a counter balance to the meticulously executed images in oil. Embedded within the confines of a painting are poems which reveal the artists internal conflict between the instinctive and the demands of civilization. The merging of painting and Braille poetry transforms oberservers into participants and requires the use of multiple senses. Nachum sees his work as a vehicle to allow viewers to confront their own existential apprehensions. Nachum often paints figures whose vision is obscured, suggesting that man’s blindness is caused by displaced values and desire.
SEA OF CROWNS
