Anat Litwin

Black Forest- Pics by Alic Trosman

2011-11-29T11:10:00.001-08:00

Black Forest Pics by Alic Trosman

2011-11-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

Black Forest Pictures by Alic Trossman

2011-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Black Forest and Champage / Mount Carmel is Burning

2011-11-20T18:03:00.000-08:00

Black Forest & Champagne / Mount Carmel is Burning, Anat Litwin, 16 Paper cut-outs, 88" x 88", 2011

BLACK FOREST / Associative Definitions

- The Black Forest as an unknown territory of wild life, beauty, transcendence, fantasy, mystery, and desire. As an archetype of paradise, lost or found. A place where one can glimpse at marvels of nature, at the pitfalls of self, at a party of fairy’s and demons and nymphs, all running around naked.

- The Black Forest (Schwarzwald) as a place - a dense mountain range set in southwestern Germany with its iconic romantic imagery of fortifying pines covered in the winter in a blanket of white.

- The Black Forest as a nightmare, as a site of evilness and crime, the ultimate exile.
Trees filled with partisans, refuges of genocide, the dark night of mankind looming.

- The Black forest of Mount Carmel, my home town, Haifa, charcoaled after a four day fire. The blaze consumed the lives of 44 people, burning more than 4 million trees which were planted several decades ago by zionists who dreamed to recreate a new green homeland. Mount Carmel named in the Bible as the place where prophet Elija built an altar asking god to send down a sign of sovereignty and unity with the people, in the form of a blaze of fire.

-The Black Forest: burnt illusions.

- The Black Forest a fancy baked cake that became famous in Berlin for high class parties - made in layers of chocolate and cherry liquor and served to the sound of clinging glasses of champagne in private elite homes of the bourgeois. The decadence of good life, the indulgence in celebration, the silky smoothness of sugar and cream.

Bringing home a sublimated, inverted, black forest, a self made, white version, made out of paper. Finding a home for the Black Forest in an old, transformed Brooklyn fire house.

Black Forest and champagne / Mount Carmel is Burning was created as an enigmatic entity that includes all of the definitions above. It is both apocalyptic and utopian. it is a juxtaposition of nature and culture, of wild, primal life and domesticity. It is both a provoking and ethereal space where healing and galvanization can take place - the surrendering to unknown powers of nature, to the human ephemerality and to our non materialistic existence. The ghost like, white branches can be seen as shed burdens and burnt bonds to the past - a letting go to longing and unfulfilled desires.

Linking three of my ‘hometowns’ - Haifa, Berlin and Brooklyn -, Black Forest and Champagne / Mount Carmel is Burning becomes a setting in which one can perform a sincere yet decadent celebration - indulging in a new awareness where the fragility of life becomes an enduring existential mode. it is a jumping into an inner fire, a smile at the face of death, an Echoing of Eden behind closed doors.

* With gratitude and friendship to host and owner Scott Newkirk

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mage above: Installation Room of Black Forest & Champagne / Mount Carmel is Burning, at HomeBase LAB, Berlin 2011, where it was created. White Branches, Found Chairs, Hospital table, Champagne Glasses, Bottle of Champagne.

Artist Statement

2011-01-20T18:39:00.000-08:00

my practice is rooted in the primal need of inter-connectedness, acceptance, and the desire for transcendence.

i am passionate about the power of art to reveal a deeper understanding of the ‘human’ enigma, to evoke meaning, capture beauty, invade and create a reality. I seek to intertwine the poetic with the matter of factness of the everyday in search for an utopian terrain in which they are inseparable - defeating even if momentarily, the existential pull of exile.

to try and pursue this, i perform deeds of transgression and gestures of love, which constantly expand the friction of life with art. They unfold on sensual, emotional, conceptual and concrete levels all at once. i tend to communicate through an expressive, humorous, often seductive, often child like, artistic voice - questioning and undermining personal and formal social structures, hierarchies, gender relations and power modes in an effort to open new possibilities of being in the world.

My work is built out of contradictions, juxtaposing sensibilities which are both liminal and conventional, heroic and pathetic, feminine and masculine. i suspend myself in a riddle, between fantasy, subconsciousness and dense sobriety.

I find that the human story - the honest undoing and redoing of self - plays a critical part in my work. some of that drive is connected to the fact that i was raised by my mother, a gifted therapist, who’s work with people and compassionate view of life have been an inherited inspiration. this might also explain my desire towards creating ‘relational art’ as a platform in which the process and essence of a relationship becomes a valid aesthetic entity on its own. I follow an intimate exploration of self and other as a way to enter a larger shared collective subconscious, and often I am struck by the beauty found in mundane human experiences.

other influences are figures who actively pushed the limits of art and dared to build their artistic visions, and create utopian or mini utopian realities. Among these are artists such as joseph beuys, francis elys and rirkrit tiravanija. Other profound artistic voices which deeply echo in me are louis bourgeois, sara lucas and jennifer holzer.

I feel that art has huge power in shaping the world and am a devotee of creation. my artistic practice unfolds on two parallel paths: studio practice and public art / social sculpture

my studio practice focuses on building a poignant visual iconic vocabulary through the medium of paper cutouts and installations, using an overall direct, raw sensuality. i want the viewer to be lured by the beauty and vitality of the piece while stirred and confronted by complex, visceral, thought provoking content. i find that the medium of paper helps to deliver a desired naivety and sincerity, while offering a bold presence. the use of scissors demands an expressive commitment - the turning of an idea or image or feeling into a precise hard edge form - a challenge which i find compelling.

the site-specific public art projects invite community participation, collaboration and the integration of art into the urban setting. they are shaped to touch people and create change in the world by shifting perceptions and by learning from eachother. in 2006 i founded the HomeBase Project - a community based site specific public art project exploring notions of home, which aims to foster interconnectedness in society through contemporary art. since it has received attention in prominent venues and publications such as the New York Times, New Yorker Magazine, NY1, Volta NY and other prominent venue, and has traveled to five different locations in NY and in Berlin.

I am currently balancing my time between continuing to develop my individual artistic language while co-creating HomeBase Project VI in Jerusalem in Fall 2012.

for more about HomeBase visit www.homebaseberlin.com

2010-11-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

Gray Popsicle Positions

2009-07-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

2009-07-11T10:46:00.000-07:00

2009-07-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

2009-07-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

Details

2009-07-11T06:53:00.000-07:00

Pink Popsicle Positions

2009-07-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Popsicle Positions / pink, paper cut out-s, 20" x 20" each, 2007

Life Sentence #3: This is how I dance

2009-07-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Life Sentence #3:

This is how I dance like an African queen don't let my fair skin fool you, paper cut-out's, 20"x20" each sequence of 6, 2008

I tell myself

2009-07-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

I tell myself, paper cut-out's, 20"x 20" each, 2008

Cheese

2009-07-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Cheese, paper cut-out, 20" x 20" each, 2008

Milk & Honey

2009-07-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Kiss

2009-07-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

RAW

2008-06-24T21:44:00.000-07:00