LIFE

Ben-Attar is an Israeli-American artist whose art reflects a deep understanding and interpretation of Hebrew letters and ancient Jewish ritual practices. She is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. She served as Director of the Beit Hatzayar Gallery Project promoting art created by at-risk youth in Israel (2003-2008). Ben-Attar was the head designer for the Jerusalem-based Multicultural Center for Theater Research including the ensemble New Faces(2005-2008). She has been an Alexander Technique instructor since 2004. Currently, Ben-Attar is working in her home-based studio in Taos, New Mexico, where she has lived for the last decade with her husband and children.

ART

Ben-Attar began working with Klaf (parchment or vellum) in 2003. By using animal skin-based media she explores light, color, shape and form, while combining illuminated sculptures and Hebrew writings. Her work examines religion, sanctity, secularism, activism, feminism, violence, morality, and human fragility. Through these themes, Ben-Attar interprets the symbolic language of the Torah (Hebrew Bible) in a contemporary context. Many of her pieces offer prayers written in Hebrew that delve into the paradox of inner and outer reality. Ben-Attar is intrigued and fascinated by questions such as: “What is ‘holy’ in language?” and “What is the role of letters and words in our lives?”

MATERIALS

Ben-Attar’s choice of Klaf as her main medium is drawn from its use for sacred texts since antiquity. The aesthetic of her work is drawn from the process of rendering sheets of klaf (is this a lower or upper case word?), as it is done for the Jewish holy scrolls (Torah, Mezuzah, and Tefillin). She reveals the mysteries and inner qualities of the klaf by painting, inscribing, stretching in frames and sculpting this revered material. By adding LED lights she illuminates the raw and wild origin of the material creating an art form she calls “a light within leather”. This raw and sacred process is the foundation of her art.