One of the ways that humankind has tried to come into contact with the unknown, from prehistoric times to the present, is through rituals. The ritual experience embraces human belief, emotion and body alike.
One cannot exhaust the subject of this exceptionally complex ancient approach in the frame of a short article, however, we can trace one common denominator to its many expressions over the generations. This is the concept that sees everthing that surrounds us as a vital living force: the earth, stones, trees, birds, reptiles, fish and animals – all of them participate in the great Creation and thus gain the sympathy of man as partners on the same journey and destiny.
Through all his works, the artist, continually engages in philosophical and theological questions. He experiences these ponderings in his body, day by day, hour by hour, and is re-energized by the mysteries of the world. The ritual artistic act of Moshe Shek’s creation has a purpose, which is to connect heaven and earth, matter and spirit. However, his works cannot be affiliated or defined as belonging to any particular culture, as Shek is not an artist searching for solutions, he is an artist who wishes to express the unheard voice of being, the voice of longing, the desire to touch the material, the earth, the concrete, while at the same time experiencing the beyond. From this aspect, Moshe Shek is considered one of the greatest romantics of all time, an intellectual who would not give up his path for the sake of finding absolute answers, but for whom the search itself is the essence of being, and the changing answers that are woven into the infinite fabric are evidence of this continuous process.
Moshe Shek’s works express his position at the breaking point between the familiar and the cryptic. The familiar is revealed as layer stacked upon layer, the artist’s personal experiences joining the research of human civilizations. It is a dialogue between the artist and the preceding rituals, an attempt to detect the common thread and at the same time to touch upon the unique. Observing Moshe Shek’s works triggers a certain sense of tension. This is a tension that exists between symbols that evoke associations with ritualistic archetypes and the uniqueness reflected in the artist’s mindset. Thus, the works become visual channels for the burst of his personal ponderings and feelings, and for general philosophical questions about the essence of Creation and the great enigma of the Creator. The works are supported by human culture, its beliefs and rituals, without falling into the trap of a specific affiliation.
Moshe Shek is a worshiper of a universal human religion. This is perhaps the reason that a congenial viewer will immediately relate to him, regardless of any specific link to a religion or nationality (although his work is always based on spiritual Judaism). The subjects of Shek’s artistic works are derived, both in content and in their visual nature, from the formal human glossary of worship of nature and divinity of all time.
The Cave Dweller
Caves, like mountains, are geographical places that serve mankind for ritual purposes. The mountain represents the male facet of divinity while the cave represents the female facet. The cave resembles the womb, a hiding place of the beginning of the creation. It represents the goddess of the earth, the dark and humid Great Mother, who gives life and takes it away. The cave represents the collective subconscious and the capacity for convergence and human thought. Moshe Shek chooses his caves, looks into the darkness of their bellies, as if he is looking into the opening of light from above which faintly penetrates them. Shek imprints his presence in the cave, imitating the lifestyle of the cavemen who were simple tillers of the soil, and creates sculptures of animals whose outer shells look like fictional animals. Their interior is a safe place to hide from foes, it is also a place to store grain, a place to raise pigeons and produce olive oil, as well as a gathering place for the family. A complete set of small and large rooms, branches and corridors, hiding places and mazes. These voids were removed from their context and from the bowels of the earth and became animals of the fields and birds of the sky made from the local clay of the earth, by Moshe’s skillful hands. “I am from Zamość and not from Canaan, but I found myself here, and the atmosphere here is making a statement to which I am unable to remain silent or indifferent”. The construction of the animals from clay pursues the the artist’s breathing rhythm, the breathing rhythm of the cave, the light, the earth, the universe, everything is just one big breath of unity.
Maker of the Plates and the Vessels
Tableware, decorative accessories, and flowers were used in the ritual of the dead and were placed in tombs of various cultures, among them the Egyptian, Chinese and Canaanite cultures. The objects were offered to the dead to be used in the afterlife. Various objects are also offered as a gift for the gods. In many cultures various rituals grant symbolic meaning to food and drink utensils, such as the Jewish sanctification blessing goblet, the Christain Holy Grail. Foods also have a symbolic role in rituals, such as bread or wine in the Jewish and Christian cultures.
Inspired by these ritual objects, Moshe Shek created his infinate series of plates decorated with organic geometric patterns which do not repeat themselves. The decorations which are permeated in a wealth of pan-cultural symbols function in renewable contexts like the chain of galaxies, the planets, black holes. The plates were made by a creator whose spirit is not bound to any specific form. They were created one after the other, as if they were breathing the ever changing essence of life. Each plate has its own exclusive visual existance. Some are more defined and others are faded, some decorated with plants and some with animals, some boast abstract motifs, and others incorporate inspirational sources from casual coincidences, but all of them were conceived in one great womb, that keeps them natural in character, devoid of sophistication or over-decoration. Which strictly maintains an asymmetric character and internal fluidity. The plates radiate a sence of a labyrinth, with no beginning and no end. The plates, like nature, move toward the unknown, the irregular. Each plate is a new adventure and no rule can be laid down for any plate, an incidental story flowing from the depths of the conscious like a spring that emerges from the earth’s thickets.
The giant urns also evoke associations of ancient vessels, of the Great Mother or the ancient fetus. Associations of the beginning of things and their end (burial jars). The vessel hides its inner life, its bottom, like life hides that which is beyond the visually perceived. Moshe Shek’s vessels are autonomous objects. Like the plates, they have also lost their historic ritual functionality and gained their own lives. The clay vessels are fill of their own air, they have a unique personality, each one and its opening, each one and its supportive belly and legs. They are sensual, suggestive of fertility. They express the intensity of inclination and the ability of creation and unflagging vitality.