Edith Rosenfeld / Coming into Being

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

- Genesis 1: 3

In the biblical account, it is the word that brings the world into being, giving it form.

The word's creative force also lies at the heart of Edith Rosenfeld's exhibition.

Her work brings her Jewish identity and the Japanese culture in which she was raised together, drawing inspiration from both.

After nearly three decades of painting in oils, Rosenfeld has developed a personal visual language that combines ceramics and Japanese calligraphy—two media that complement one another and remain in sustained dialogue throughout her work.

Rosenfeld is drawn to the primordial moment described in Genesis, to the formlessness that preceded the emergence of distinct forms, and to the tradition of Japanese calligraphy, which connects her to the life force inherent in the written word.

An art form that demands practice, concentration, and intention, calligraphy also allows for natural flow and creative freedom.

Rosenfeld chooses Japanese characters that evoke fundamental aspects of existence, among them Mu (無)—nothingness or emptiness; Kami (神)—divinity; and Shin (心)—heart-mind. 

In her work, absence echoes the space that precedes form, the moment before something takes shape. The act of writing itself becomes a passage from void to form: a large Japanese brush, dipped in black ink, sweeps rapidly across the paper.

The resulting line is the trace of a singular gesture, an intersection of body, breath, consciousness, ink, and paper.

Freed from the need to be legible, the character transpires on the threshold between language and image, between word and abstract form.

In her ceramic panels, too, Rosenfeld seeks to touch on the primordial moments of becoming.

She pours paint onto the surface of the clay, allowing it to flow and merge freely.

In some of the works, she uses raku firing, a traditional Japanese technique in which fire and chance play an active role, yielding unique and unpredictable results.

The cracks and fissures left by the fire are, for her, akin to the bursts of energy at the dawn of creation.

Shir Meller-Yamaguchi

Curator