Jewish Art in America by Matthew Baigell

Nashim, a Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues, Fall 2007
Torah Study, Feminism and Spiritual Quest in the Work of Five American Jewish Women Artists by Gloria Feman Orenstein

Bruria Finkel – Across Time, Space and the Ages, 1992
Dr. Joel Kovel, Social Studies Professor, Bard College, NY

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WHEEL: THE CALL TO KABBALAH FOR BRURIA FINKEL

Every religion has – must have – its mystical side, where the set laws of living give way to the speculative laws of being. The mystical side of Judaism has been codified (but not ossified) into the Kabbalah, an ever-accruing knowledge of postulates designed to reveal – celebrate, really – the coherence of overarching formulas. Of course there’s intelligent design, the thinking goes, but it applies not to such puny things as earthly evolution, but to the physics, and metaphysics, of the universe.

Who, then, are we to understand the Thinking of God? Well, we’re the only species we’ve so far encountered that wants to, or could possibly begin to. But, as with anything in the spiritual realm, we can grasp it only metaphorically. To the Kabbalists the Divine Thinking is a whirl of numbers and words and structures and incantations derived there from. This is the whirl that spins Bruria Finkel’s art – and gives it cause, time and again, to take the form of a wheel. Providing her the opportunity to contemplate the majesty of God’s realm – which, after all, encompasses all we can possibly know – the Kabbalah prompts Bruria constantly to reconsider earthly existence. That is, like any devoted scholar of the Kabbalah, she is moved, time and again, to reinvent the wheel.

Bruria reinvents the wheel for our sake, not just for hers. Kabbalistic teaching is famously arcane, recently fashionable, and taught from tomes and tablets, as much science as religion, as much art as philosophy. But, even more than the Bible itself, the Kabbalah – a non-narrative discourse – mutates in communication, and disseminates as much indirectly as directly through life’s perceptual tissue. Especially if the Kabbalah itself is art, can there be an “art of the Kabbalah?” Would it remain “art,” or would it become a kind of “meta-art,” an art about an art? Bruria thinks, and finally demonstrates, that Kabbalah-driven art remains art per se, because it embodies human perception and endeavor, albeit twice over.

Bruria’s art is not commentary on the Kabbalah, but is a reconfiguration of its logic, a putting-to-work of Kabbalistic theory – not quite in the same way as, say, alchemical efforts to turn lead into gold, but definitely a means of giving form to verbal and numerical expression, form that such expression had not been given before. Form is informed by information, detail follows on detail, and abstract knowledge takes circular shape, the same shape assumed by galaxies and drops in a pond. Within that circle play myriad dynamics, lines in a portal, spokes of a wheel. Whether crowning the four staffs of The Divine Chariot sculptures or framing diverse atmospheres in expansive murals and intimate drawings, the single-sided shape of the circle/orbit/wheel at once spins like a world and frames the universe as if through the singular gaze of the Creator.

Again, it is all metaphor. Bruria certainly does not presume to see, or permit us to see, the universe as God does. But she points at that perspective, proposing the possibility of its existence and musing on the shape it takes. It takes all shapes at once, of course, being God’s; but in taking all shapes, it unifies into the O. If we were to translate the Kabbalistic approach here – that is, into English – we could align the Latin “o” with the Latin numeral zero, and God would remain mysteriously absent. But Bruria’s art suggests another Kabbalistic word- number alignment, one that valorizes the manifestation of the circle as a – the – singularity, the first letter of “one.” Hear O Israel, after all: The Lord Is One.

ALEPH: THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE

The Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but it is silent. This is one of the many mysteries of divine creation via the word. As we enter the space of Bruria Finkel’s installation, we are invited to contemplate the multidimensional extension of THE ALEPH’s silent resonance throughout time and space, and to perceive the vibrations of the energies it draws in via its revelatory graphic expression. The mystical meaning of the printed form of the Aleph , with an upper right arm, pointing towards the supernal realms, a lower left arm pointing towards the lower realms, and a connecting vav, or slanted line, linking the two together, creates a graphic symbol for the connectedness of our human life on earth to our spiritual origins, and to our eventual home in “ the world to come”. Just as the Aleph’s significance is so much larger than the sum of its parts, so Bruria Finkel’s installation, THE ALEPH resonates with a power that extends far beyond the sum of its own individual artistic works.

The Kabbalah invites humans to engage in repairing the world, known as "Tikkun Olam" through various acts, such as performing meditations on the names of God and on the Hebrew alphabet. Bruria’s installation, her creation of a sacred space with its central ritual piece, is also an act of "Tikkun Olam." Rabbi David A. Cooper teaches that "The beginning practice is simply to gaze at a single letter. The Hebrew letter aleph is often used, as it represents the eternal nature of existence. It is a letter that bridges between the unknown dimensions of "nothingness" and the beginning of things.

Gloria Feman Orenstein, Comp. Lit. and Gender Studies, Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

The Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, features one of the finest collections of American craft in the United States. Its collections, exhibition program and publications highlight the best craft objects and decorative arts from the 19th century to the present.

Renwick Curator, Jane Milosch says: "Dream Sequence by Bruria Finkel is considered to be a beautiful piece and was chosen because it is an exceptional example of her work. It brings together many elements that are in her earlier work in a powerful way. The psychology of the piece transcends time and recalls ancient art as well as contemporary artists. It stimulates us to think about how we treat each other as human beings and the power of memory."