skip to main | skip to sidebar

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Nepal

Star of King David on the hat of Nepal's King1 Rupee (1985)

On February 1, 2005 Nepal's King Gyanendra announced on TV news the dissolving of the elected government because it wasn't democratic enough. On his head there was a hat with a few religious symbols; one of them looked like the Star of David . This is an opportunity to ponder about the difference between the different appearances of the hexagram in different cultures.
In order to decide which is which one must consider the context. If the context is Jewish the shape is a Star of David…the king of Nepal has a non Jewish hexagram while the flag of Israel has a Star of David in its center. It may sound absurd that the conclusion is dependent on the assumption - but isn't it a part of the charm of this symbol: as above so below. You can look at it from the center to the corners and the other way round, from the assumption to the conclusion and the other way round.
Posted by zeevveez at 10:57 PM 3 comments
Click to see more:

Ingathering of the Israelites

On the Israel Science and Technology Homepage I found an interesting interpretation of the Star of David as a symbol for the Ingathering of the Israelites. Dr. Semion Natliashvili created a drawing of Jews standing in the shape of a Star of David and reading from the Bible. Beneath them there are Hebrew words from Isaiah 60:4:

 

"Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar..."

 

The author of this web page added:

 

"The Star of David symbolizes the gathering of the Jewish People from all corners of the world including Georgia (country of birth of the artist)"...

 

I like this interpretation. One can look at the Star of David from the center to the corners and have associations of development and expansion, but one can also look at it the other way round, from the corners to the center – and then the above mentioned interpretation shows itself naturally. 

 

Posted by zeevveez at 6:10 AM 0 comments
Click to see more:

Shield of David Verse


King DAVID wrote in Psalms 18:3 "The Lord...my SHIELD".

This is not the origin of the shape - it is only one of the prominent verses where one can find the concept...


Posted by zeevveez at 2:35 AM 0 comments
Click to see more:

Friday, May 05, 2006

Candle Cup




Photos courtesy of Bill Finley who wrote to me the following:

We have developed a number of designs over the years and felt that if we were going to do a cross we should have designs for other religions as well so we started doing the Star of David and then added the Menorah to our designs.

Posted by zeevveez at 10:44 AM 0 comments
Click to see more:

Komar and Melamid

The Star of David is a shape, which means that it's visual more than verbal, which means that it's more plausible to find it in galleries than in scholars' books. This line of thinking led me to a "treasure" of sixty drawings and four large oil paintings made by dissident Russian-born artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, exploring universal ancient symbols like yin and yang, the swastika, the serpent Ouroboros, spirals Kabbalistic spheres, and…the Star of David!
Richard McBee published on January 14, 2003 a long article in The Jewish Press about these postmodern provocative artists who made an exhibition titled "Symbols of the Big Bang" at the Yeshiva University Museum, New York. On the webpage of this article I saw four of Komar and Melamid most inventive works:
1. A drawing of a bird in the shape of a Star of David. The bird holds an olive branch. Around the bird there's an Ouroboros, a snake eating its tail.
2. Oil on canvas – a skull in the shape of a Star of David above it an hourglass, above it a clown's hat.
3. A drawing of a combined blue swastika and a yellow Star of David in front of a stone globe.
4. A drawing of a combined black swastika and a Star of David on a red circle.
I read another review by Donald Goddard who wrote about his deep reactions to the works:
Donald Goddard noted that Stars of David appeared in an earlier work of Komar and Melamid – the biographical series of 1972-7
Komar encourages viewers to experience the mystical healing power of the Star of David
Combining the swastika with the Star of David is provocative - but the fact that the artists are Jews (In 1977 they immigrated to Israel and from there to the United States) and that the exhibition took place in a Jewish museum enabled putting politics aside and concentrating on the universal meaning of these ancient symbols - the struggle between good and evil.
See:
Posted by zeevveez at 4:59 AM 1 comments
Click to see more: , ,

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Lamel School

Edler von Lamel School is at Yeshayahu St. Jerusalem. It was built in 1903 and has a big stone Star of David above its entrance. Architect Theodore Sandler who passed away during the work designed the school; his son Benjamin completed the design.

Photographer Baruch Gian wrote an article in Hebrew titled "The best Magen David" about stonecutters in Jerusalem in the beginning of the 20th century. He claims that in those days the Star of David was the most common symbol to be engraved in stone. It appeared usually in the keystone, in windows and doors. All this happened many years before the establishment of the state of Israel…



 

 

Posted by zeevveez at 10:17 AM 0 comments
Click to see more: ,

Artists Delineate Territories of a Symbol

On March 1996 there was an art exhibition (Hebrew) titled "the Star of David: Israeli and German artists delineate territories of a symbol" in the Tower of David, Jerusalem, Israel. Batia Donner was the curator and 16 artists, 7 from Germany and 9 from Israel, showed how they see this symbol.

 The exhibition was based on another exhibition held in Germany to celebrate 30 years since the beginning of diplomatic relationships between Germany and Israel.  Among the artists were: noted Israeli press and art photographer Micha Bar Am, photographer Alex Libak, poster-artist Yossi Lemel and David Tartakover. 

Cooperation between Israelis and Germans is always under the shadows of holocaust associations, especially when dealing with this special symbol which Nazis used to humiliate Jews; that's why it was a poetic justice to choose the Star of David for the Israeli flag.

 


Posted by zeevveez at 4:45 AM 0 comments
Click to see more:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)
 

AltStyle によって変換されたページ (->オリジナル) /