JAS Session September 13, 2011

The Jewish Art Salon and the Educational Alliance in New York will host a session in conjunction with Tobi Kahn’s exhibit Embodied Light, 9-11 in 2011 at the Ernest Rubinstein Gallery. Salon members and the general public are welcome to attend that night to view Kahn's exhibit, to share their 9-11 memories and bring their “memory block” to be displayed in a window installation. (more info on that below).

Date: Tuesday September 13th, 6-8 pm. Tobi will discuss his exhibit; followed by those who wish to share their block and/or their memories of 9-11. Kosher wine and seltzer will be served.

Location: Ernest Rubenstein Gallery,
197 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002.
Between Jefferson and Clinton Streets.
F train to East Broadway; MTA buses: M9, M15, M22

RSVP here

Jewish Art Salon members will contribute their own art / writing for an installation of memory blocks in the gallery windows on the Jefferson Street side, in concert with Kahn's exhibit. To be exhibited from September 14 – November 23, 2011. To participate in the exhibit, click here.

Kahn’s exhibit will feature 220 memory blocks, handed out by him to various New Yorkers and returned to him with a drawing or inscription that evokes their memory of the day. These blocks will be continually rearranged over the length of the exhibition.

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More information on Kahn’s exhibit:

“Embodied Light: 9-11 in 2011", an installation by Tobi Kahn.
September 9 – November 23, 2011
Gallery Hours:  Monday – Thursday, 9:00 am to 9:00 pm; Friday – Sunday, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm              
Address: Ernest Rubenstein Gallery, 197 East Broadway between Jefferson and Clinton Streets, New York NY.

                   A commemorative exhibit of September 11, 2011. The gallery will be transformed into a meditative room for visitors to reflect on remembrance, loss and the human spirit.   Sculptural shrines, memorial candle holders and a floor relief will reference both the specific tragedy of 9/11/01 and a universal reflection on loss, remembrance and hope.  Kahn is creating a sacred space consisting of seven shrines, each encompassing an abstract figure, bracketed in solitude by an architectural structure; seven sculpted memorial lights, and two charity boxes made of the plaques like those engraved in chapels with the names of the dead—but blank in ceaseless grief.
In the center of the gallery will be a floor relief comprised of thousands of wood remnants from art Kahn made in the decade since 9-11. From above, their overlapping shapes and the patterns they form of refracted light suggest an aerial view of the city’s density, loss, and sustenance. Memory blocks, for the 220 floors in the two towers, were given by hand, ceremonially, to New Yorkers chosen by the artist in spring 2011, and then returned to him with a drawing or inscription that evokes their memory of the day. In changing patterns, obscuring and bringing to light distinct memories, the blocks will be continually rearranged over the length of the exhibition.
                    The accompanying catalogue will have essays by Maya Benton, Curator at International Center of Photography, Norman Kleeblatt, chief curator at The Jewish Museum and by James E. Young, author of At Memory's Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture, and The Texture of Memory. LMCC appointed him as a juror for the World Trade Center Site Memorial competition.
             “Kahn has created art for hospices, hospitals and memorial chapels, ranging from a single canvas to an entire room for meditation. The Health Care Chaplaincy has selected Kahn as the principal artist for a 120-unit palliative care residence to be built in Lower Manhattan.” The New York Times 1/4/11.

According to the art critic Dore Ashton, Tobi Kahn's art "unites our perception of the material with our memory." This is only fitting for a man whose Jewish heritage permeates all aspects of his work. Whether in his mysterious paintings, reminiscent of biological and geographical formations, or in his sculptures of sanctuaries and sacred monumental pieces, or in the design of furniture and ambient space for a hospital meditation room, Kahn's work draws us into meditation. Kahn's art causes us to dip into the "deep wells within us where longing and memory intermingle."

The Philadelphia Inquirer calls his work "perfectly balanced between extremes of abstract and representational.... having an uneasy mixture of authority and idiosyncrasy—and sometimes just a bit beyond human reach."
                
http://tobikahn.com

A Facebook page, “Embodied Light,” has been set up to make it possible for new contributors to create virtual blocks, extending the project online.