Imprints of Time

Imprints of Time / Josef Ralt

The works of the sculptor and painter, Lea Dayan, are balanced in fine precision between the thematic content of the work itself, employing the four elements of ceramic art – earth, water, fire and air – and her exquisite application of the technique with the materials, revealing the artist’s interest in the archaic, the raw and rustic simplicity.

The resulting charming sculptural forms are reminiscent of ancient pottery: house like constructions, ritual tools of nomadic desert tribes from distant past as well as basic, unprocessed forms of nature. The unprocessed raw surface of the works perfectly matches the more sophisticated, refined and cultured level, inspired by several sources of the great art of the past. The austere modesty of the works indicate the artist’s understanding and ongoing dialogue with Eastern and Western artistic traditions, beginning with pre-historic cave art, through the ancient art of Egypt, the Hellenistic, Etruscan and Classical periods, all the way to the masters of Modernism and the abstract movement of the 20th century.

In spite of a noticeable abstraction in Dayan’s works, there is also a considerable presence of the figurative citations originating among others, in the rich, encrypted symbolism of the Kabala, in the new Feminism and even the recent ecological approaches, forming a renewed bonding with the sacredness of Earth. In these turbulent times, in which mass communication and the media is based mostly on the production of inner and outer noise, Lea Dayan offers a refuge in quite, calm whisperings full of compassion.

The rough textures with their gentle markings and scratches, the warm colors of the terra-cotta and the delicate balance between centripetal inwardness and centrifugal dispersion, allow for a meditative absorption, full of wonder and soft contemplation, giving the viewer an opportunity to momentarily step outside the continuum of linear time, inviting them to participate in the continuous enfoldment of the present.

The modesty and the quite strength of the works evoke a sense of great presence, beyond the formal aesthetics. The exhibition space is charged by a spiral movement, creating a gentle dialogue between the sculptural objects themselves as well as with the audience which is invited to listen to the visual murmurings. The wisdom of the hands, speaking the sensual language of touch, caressing and rough at the same time, is joined to the intuitive sensibility of the artist, in a simple yet precise work, a kind of ancient affirmation that can reveal a secret.

Josef Ralt