Noam Lifshitz
The first time Noam Lifshitz fashioned a wire form he was 18 years old. He often went walking in the fields of the kibbutz where he grew up. Once, while walking in the fields he came across a steel band used for sealing large packages. This band had obviously been thrown away, after being opened. He fashioned the band into a form and set it on a hill top, where it seemed to fit. Since that time he has formed a special bond with metal wire, which was very plentiful in his surroundings. He would gather it up and fashion it into various forms, either two or three dimensional. The type and thickness of the wire influenced his choice of subject, as did his life experience.
By profession, he is both an artist and a historian. These seem far removed, one from the other, but he finds much similarity between the two. The historian chooses facts and details, which have importance for him, and fashions them into a scene of historic reality. He recognizes the human tendency to build a complete, logical picture, and he allows himself to utilize his logic and, more important, his imagination to supply the missing details.
The wire in Noam’s art form is the knowledge. He chooses to fashion it in a particular way in space. The form is completed by the beholder’s imagination.
The wire sculptures come in various sizes, materials, and dimensions. The two dimensional figures can come as a framed picture, a greeting card, or as an invitation to a social event. Within a box frame, the figure becomes three-dimensional. It is, in essence, a two dimensional picture within a three dimensional setting. The true three-dimensional form is the wire sculpture, standing on a base, or hanging. Some of Noam’s most original figures are Jewish sculptures such as the boy holding the Torah which is suitable as an original Bar Mitzvah gift and the woman lighting the Shabbat candles which could be a wonderful presentation gift.
Noam’s ideas keep renewing themselves. The fact that he is a Jewish-Israeli artist living in Jerusalem influences his work, and his changing ideas find their expression in the subject matter and in their background.
