Deep Earth Exhibition, Sydney 2010

Sheffer's timeless ceramic vessels explore multi faceted Middle Eastern cultures, history& design and she investigates themes of mythology, religion and language www.avitalsheffer.com 

References to print work – Avital Sheffer

The scripts on my artwork are a result of my research in ancient manuscripts, mainly Jewish and related sects – Samaritan and Karaite, from diverse Diasporas over two Millennia. The sanctity of Hebrew contributed to the preservation of texts and manuscripts – both sacred and mundane in repositories (Genizah) across the Jewish Diaspora, a rich well of past knowledge to inform the present.

The imagery of texts I use in my print work on ceramic, are developed from a wide range of sources: sacred texts, community archives, personal documents such as marriage deeds, love letters, scientific works, astronomical charts as well as musical works and poetry.

Common to all of them is their anchor in the history of communities and individuals, the story they tell of the enduring nature of the human endeavour, and the thread of beauty woven into the flow of the lines and the form of the ancient characters. They make reference to a slow and lasting form of information and communication and pay tribute to the anonymous calligrapher whose hand I follow.

I choose the texts for their visual and aesthetic qualities and the way they interact with my forms, they are references to other times and places. Deciphering the texts is not necessary for the understanding of and connecting with the work. I often take the freedom to restore, blare, abstract and cut the texts for that reason.

The texts are often placed against decorative elements, scrolls and arabesques, developed from a rich well of other Middle Eastern cultures, so a quiet conversation can take place suggestive of past and future possibilities of collaboration and interaction.

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Adamah I Size 79x56x26cm