Signed Manuscripts

Signed Manuscripts
Humankind uses text as a tool to communicate and impart messages, ideas, concepts and significances by which to explain, interpret and decipher the world of phenomena and images.
Art uses sign language as an intermediary to convey messages between the artist and the observer.
The art work shown in this exhibition is the personal journal of a continuous journey by artists Nechama Levendel and Nadav Bloch in various countries.
Nadav Bloch disassembles ideas into letters and colors, using Hebrew, Latin and Arabic symbols to indicate the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Through constant search and Sisyphean effort Nadav builds strata of letters woven together in transparent layers using the three primary colors – red, blue and yellow. During the work process he creates strata of letters that describe various periods in the development of human history. As the upper layers build up, the lower layers slowly disappear. At the depth of the transparent layers, the light reveals a chaotic and confused world that expresses the lack of knowledge, understanding and ability to weave a clear universal text accepted by all. In the transparent language strata, mergers are woven in identical colors that create similarities between the letters, their interactions, and the gradual dialog that develops into a dynamics of understanding the necessity to communicate.
Nechama Levendel chose the book as the topic of her work – the book as a personal, social and environmental element that contains local and universal messages and values, which change in relation to time and place. Through travels and living in the countries where the artists have stayed, relationships were formed with the native inhabitants. Nechama received used books and incorporated the local knowledge she gained into her artistic work. The binding and weaving of the books is performed by using local characteristics such as samples of illustrations and weaving, local texts, used candles from local churches, discovered accessories, whilst using the region’s shades and the motif of rust color to indicate the changes in time. By means of meticulously coded messages, the books change their destiny – from clear structures of sentences and ideas they become architectural objects that hold an esthetic visual message.

Nechama Levendel Nadav Bloch
0544546530
levendelbloch@yahoo.com

Secrets סודות

סודות Secret
Video Art By
Nechama Levendel & Nadav Bloch

כפר אמני עין הוד Ein Hod Artists' Village

Exhibit - watch were your going !!! New York city

Exhibit

watch were your going !!! New York city

Street View

photos, video

levendel bloch gallery

Ein Hod Artists' Village

Israel

גלריה לבנדל בלוך עין הוד

Old & New Exhibition in Kyustendil Bulgaria

Old & New Exhibition in Kyustendil Bulgaria

Old & New

Exhibition – Nechama Levendel & Nadav Bloch

"Altneuland" a book which was writ en by the man of vision of the Jewish state Teodor Benjamin Zeev Herzl.

The book was translated into Hebrew by the writer Nahum Sokolov into the name "Tel Aviv "later on the name was given to the first Hebrew city in Israel which is celebrating this year its 100 years of existence.

In his book Teodor Herzl speaks a bout the return of the Jewish people to the land of there ancestors ending the book by saying ”If you wish it is no legend”.

Threw out history the Jewish people were waiting and yearning for redemption which leaded to birth of varies Kabalistic movements from the 13 th century and on. One of them was the movement of Shabtai Zvi which grew following the big deportation of the Jewish people of Spain and the pogrom es in Ukraine.

In his book Altneuland Teodor Hazel mentions Shabtai Zvi as a phenomenon which was born following the need for Messiah.

In October 2007, while on an artistic journey through the Balkans, the artists Nechama Levendel and Nadav Bloch were invited to exhibit their work in the municipal gallery of Ulcinj in Montenegro, on the border with Albania.

The gallery had on one of it walls Stars of David (Magen David) and on the facing wall two trees were engraved in the stone. The reply to their questions as to the origin of these symbols was that the building had served as the study house of the Messiah Shabtai Zvi and his followers.

Nechama and Nadav, as Jews and as artists, were intrigued by the subject and delved into the saga of the Messiah which had caused such a shock to Jewish communities. In the second half of the 17th century the Turkish Sultan banished Shabtai Zvi to the farthest corner of the Turkish Empire after Shabtai converted to Islam.

Nathen of Gaza the profit which announce the coming of the messiah moved to Sofia , Bulgaria after Shabtai Zvi reformed to Islam.

In May 2008 the artists returned to the town of Ulcinj, and used the gallery as a studio in which they spent two months working on this project The works were show in Ulcinj, Montenegro, at the Shkodra University in Albania and at the National Gallery in Tirana, Albania and The Gallery of Kosovo in Prstina.

The exhibition Old & New contains works created and gathered threw out a journey following Jewish people around the Balkan

Nadav Bloch chose to paint on jute (burlap) sacks that were used for coffee, on the premise that trade routes were conduits of culture, through stories and tales told by the merchants about lifestyles, tradition and religion. Kabalistic literature inspired the creation process. Soft colors serve as a background to the design of spheres, upon which appear combinations of numbers and letters taken from Kabala mysticism. In his work, Nadav attempts to examine and interpret the secrets of Messianic faith created by Judaism as a longing for redemption and as a quest for insight and meaning in our spiritual and material lives.

Part of the works contains letters in Hebrew English and Arabic, symbolic to a dialog between the three monotaistic religions.

Nechama Levendel shows objects created from books. She received the books from local residents, to which she added motifs concerned with local theme using other local materials: gauze bandages, candle-wax from churches, shoe-polish and so on. The book, which is present in most cultures, sends a material and a spiritual message. In the work process, the book loses its original designation and becomes the bearer of a new visual message, beyond language, comprehensible to every spectator. The book holds a secret. The works are symbolic. Every book tells its unique story.

Art Colony Lake Ohrid Macedonia

Art Colony Ohrid Macedonia

ביקור נשיא מקדוניה לשעבר בארט קולוני אוכריד, מקדוניה

יולי 2009

following Shabtai Zvi Donme

Ulcinj, Montenegro

Donmeh

Following Shabtai Zvi

Sabbatai Sevi

Exhibition – Nechama Levendel & Nadav Bloch

In October 2007, while on an artistic journey through the Balkans, the artists Nechama Levendel and Nadav Bloch were invited to exhibit their work in the municipal gallery of Ulcinj in Montenegro, on the border with Albania.
The gallery was located in a three-story stone building in the center of an archeological site in the old town of Ulcinj. On a preparatory visit to the gallery, the artists climbed to the third floor, where, to their amazement, they discovered a niche in one of the walls over which two Stars of David (Magen David) and on the facing wall two trees were engraved in the stone. The reply to their questions as to the origin of these symbols was that the building had served as the study house of the Messiah Shabtai Zvi and his followers.
Nechama and Nadav, as Jews and as artists, were intrigued by the subject and delved into the saga of the Messiah Shabtai Zvi, which had caused such a shock to the exiled and hunted 17th century Jewish communities. In the second half of the 17th century the Turkish Sultan banished Shabtai Zvi to the farthest corner of the Turkish Empire – the town of Ulcinj, then in Albania. Various sources tell that on Yom Kippur Shabtai Zvi went outside, recited "Shema Israel" and the mosque across the street collapsed, as Shabtai Zvi died. The remains of the mosque can still be seen across the street from the gallery. Shabtai Zvi died in Ulcinj and was buried there, presumably under a false name. The grave is in a closed building and is considered holy.
In May 2008 the artists returned to the town of Ulcinj, and used the gallery as a studio in which they spent two months working on this project. The work process became part of the exhibition entitled "Following Shabtai Zvi", which was shown in Ulcinj, Montenegro, at the Shkodra University in Albania and at the National Gallery in Tirana, Albania.
Nadav Bloch chose to paint on jute (burlap) sacks that were used for coffee, on the premise that trade routes were conduits of culture, through stories and tales told by the merchants about lifestyles, tradition and religion. Kabalistic literature inspired the creation process. Soft colors serve as a background to the design of spheres, upon which appear combinations of numbers and letters taken from Kabala mysticism. In his work, Nadav attempts to examine and interpret the secrets of Messianic faith created by Judaism as a longing for redemption and as a quest for insight and meaning in our spiritual and material lives.
Nechama Levendel shows objects created from books. She received the books from local residents, to which she added motifs concerned with the Shabtai Zvi theme and other local materials: gauze bandages, candle-wax from churches, shoe-polish and so on. The book, which is present in most cultures, sends a material and a spiritual message. In the work process, the book loses its original designation and becomes the bearer of a new visual message, beyond language, comprehensible to every spectator. The book holds a secret. The works are symbolic. Every book tells its unique story.

Opening: January 3rd, 2009 at 18:00
Closing: January 23rd, 2009 at 12:00
Tova Osman Art Gallery
100 Ben-Yehuda St., Tel-Aviv

link following shabtai zvi

Sabbatai Sevi

shabbetai zevi

Laurence Oliphant Jerusalem post

The Hamud Elkara Gallery in Daliat al-Carmel is owned by the same family which sold the land on which Sir Laurence Oliphant built his summer house in the 1880s.

In one of those cases of serendipity, about 10 years ago, three artists from Ein Hod, Nechama Levendel, Nadav Bloch , were touring and painting in Scotland when they by chance met a marine archeologist, Richard Pryce, whose neighbor was also named Laurence Oliphant, a distant cousin of the 19th-century visionary. He introduced the Scottish laird to the artists who then invited him to open their new exhibition at the gallery whose family was so connected with the historic Oliphant. 

Laurence Oliphant Jerusalem post