Black on one side, colorful on the other side, from two-dimensional still life drawing into three-dimensional landscape in a sophisticated marriage of scale and color, Zadok Ben David‘s Blackfield installation is blanketing the main gallery floor with more than 12,000 petite steel cut plant sculptures arise out of a thin layer of sand. Perfectly rectangular, the installation allots a path for the viewer to circulate the room. With one complete pass, what initially appears to be all black reveals a double life of rebellious color…
Ben David consistently tests our observational diligence with these delicate union of opposites. Here the temporality of the work becomes apparent. These incremental moments of transfer from black to color and part to whole signify a process or human evaluation. In just a few steps, the artist offers a radical duality or change in state of mind.
All the flowers and plants derives from botanical illustrations from Victorian sources and text books.
Zadok Ben David lives and works in London. He received his advanced sculpture degree from St. Martin’s School of Art, London. His work has been shown extensively internationally including representing Israel in the Venice Biennale in 1988. He is the recipient of both the Grande Biennial Premio at the XIV Biennale Internacional de Arte de Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal 2007 as well as the Tel Aviv Museum prize in 2005.
More information at www.zadokbendavid.com
