Hillel Elkayam’s paintings represent his search for meaning within everything and everyone.
By ATARA BECK‘Wall of Life’ 521(photo credit: Courtesy)
A current exhibition at the Wolfson Museum of Jewish Art in Jerusalem’s Heichal Shlomo building, on display until October 17, seems perfectly suitable for this time of year.Titled “Myself Within All Things,” the exhibition features the work of talented artist Hillel Elkayam, whose themes are relevant to Rosh Hashana supplications such as submission to the will of God and the commandment in Leviticus to love your neighbor as yourself.“My interpretation of his work is seeing the unity of God in every aspect of creation, which is actually the inner meaning of all Rosh Hashana prayers,” says curator Nurit Sirkis-Bank.Although clearly a coincidence, even Elkayam’s name fits into the picture. (Pardon the pun.) In Hebrew, his surname means “God exists.”Elkayam was raised in Israel, then spent 21 years in the United States and returned two years ago. The following are excerpts from an interview he gave with In Jerusalem.Your work expresses profound religious faith. Were you always a believer and, if not, what inspired you? Basically, I was in such dire straits that I started praying. I was at a very low point… So it was pray or die. Then I started praying for the world... including our enemies, that they should repent and not die. I found more and more meaning in the words of the prayers. Then I started putting on tefillin, and so on.Is that why you returned to Israel? I came back because it was time. I have very warm feelings for the United States, but it’s not my home. I felt it palpably.What is the main message you wish to convey in your art? The main idea is to show that within everyone and every situation, everything is brimming with life, and life is consciousness. There is consciousness even in matter. If there is no consciousness, it can’t move you… My job is to reveal the consciousness within matter. Just like Michelangelo revealed David from a piece of marble, and this marble has been inspiring tens of thousands.There is spirit and consciousness within everything. There is oneness. It allows everything to take place [and] allows things to relate to one another – common ground.My goal is to show there is preciousness in every being and in every situation, because God is with us wherever we are. A bad situation helps us to learn and to accomplish what we have to… As [philosopher] Viktor Frankl discovered, quality of life doesn’t come from a situation but from how one takes it. For example, I was clinically depressed for many years… I could either take it as “life is terrible” or say “yes” to God, to really have to fight for it, so it is that much more meaningful to me and to God. To say “yes” when life is good is much easier. Faith comes from loyalty – to be loyal to life despite depression. That’s what kept me alive.What do you mean by consciousness in matter?The stones also have stories, especially the Wailing Wall. I believe it has humanity in it, as expressed in the Hebrew song [“Hakotel”]: “There are people with a heart of stone and there are stones with the heart of man.”If you step a little further away [from the Wall of Life painting], you’ll see more and more people in the wall, brimming with life.Here’s a woman who seems to have accepted all of life’s challenges.Here’s someone reaching down to give something, and a huge figure below reaching up to receive something. Where they touch becomes life. I really wanted to show all kinds of people with devotion, prayer.In all my pieces, the more you look, the more you’ll find.Do your paintings have special meaning leading up to the Days of Awe? At Rosh Hashana, we think about the people we wronged. What does it mean to wrong someone? Maybe it means to ignore or to be blind to their preciousness. God is in them too. What we do to ourselves or to others, He feels – to the point that He doesn’t accept our apologies unless made directly to them. To apologize means to restore the view that they are precious too and we are all a part of the oneness of God.There is preciousness and beauty even in harshness, even in darkness, even in ugliness... Even the weak have power, because to say “yes” to life when you’re powerful doesn’t mean as much, but to say “yes” when you’re weak is true power.The forms in my art are transparent... different forms can take the same exact space and share it. And when they are transparent, they create all kinds of beautiful things between each other.What is transparency? It means valuing the other person’s space. Then we can share the same world, and that means peace – not a passive peace, but a peace that is creative. Look at how many forms lie between them because they overlap.What are the wavy lines inside the heads [of the people in your paintings]?My art shows the struggle with darkness that’s not only around them, but inside them – the reluctance, the despair, the frustration, the rage – all these things that could make a person evil. In The Snake Within Me, you see all these rippling snake forms within, a whole tempest inside a person. It shows vitality, the pulls and pushes and drives and yearnings. The tear shows that there is also conflict… Enjoying life is actually just as important a way to commit to God, when we realize, in every pleasure we are allowed according to the Torah, that He loves us and doesn’t owe it to us.Did you study these teachings at a yeshiva?Art is my Torah learning. Since the world was created through Torah, if you do any kind of work with all your heart because you love God and it is His world, then that work is holy. •
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
