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I have looked to art as a filtering mechanism, ever since my childhood and my emigration to Israel from Croatia in 1948 with my mother and sister. It is a filter on the lens of life which allows me to visualize, from a distance, the pain, destruction and suffering of my childhood. I use the act of painting and drawing as a means to build both imaginary and real bridges between my memories of the past and my hopes for the future. My artistic concerns and consciousness, therefore, are always informed by the forces that disrupt, destroy, and disunite people, cultures and religions.
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fr. Cultural Alarms 2005, m.media on vinyl, 92x64"
My paintings are a means by which I not only express my shock at these catastrophes, but also hope to call attention to the relationships of contemporary conflict - between progress and destruction, between future and past.
I am exploring new techniques grounded in historical mural painting but which have now become more associated with the large-scale and powerful format of billboard advertising. The medium of collage is especially important to me because I use it to represent the archaeology of individual, intimate feelings. I combine personal memories of conflict, disasters and strife with images of more recent global confrontations. I would like my collection and assemblage of images, words, and “passages” from many different areas to suggest that there can be a unity amongst divergent elements, the final product giving this concept an importance on both an individual and a universal level.
www.tamarhirschl.com
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After living in Israel for 50 years, (I now live and work in New York), I find that not only I, but entire communities, face an on-going struggle. We are trying to establish a relationship between the history associated with our origins and the varied histories of the places that we now encounter in our travels through contemporary society. Our knowledge of such events is instantaneous – the mind immediately unites visual images with memory as technology and the media synchronize time throughout the world. As images from one’s memory and various experiences pass from the collective culture to oneself, they formulate a layered consciousness. It is this consciousness that I want to make visible in my work; I believe it is fitting in our turbulent times, where both cultures and individuals are bombarded with images of destruction, pain, and suffering.
My recent works show a world inflicted by war, ethnic struggles, terrorism and global unrest. Although these are inspired by my experiences growing up in and surviving the calamities brought on by a modern world of conflict, which include the Holocaust, September 11th, and the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, they also have a resonance in our present cultural landscape.
Civilization III 2005 m.media sculpture 20x12x10"
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