Michael Berkowitz

ARTIST STATEMENT

Although I come from a family whose men have been priests since Biblical times, I chose not to follow the orthodox Judaism of my birth. Still, I have always been committed to finding my own way to be right with God through my art. From the beginning, my work has investigated religious issues: the power of, and the need for ritual, the search for mystery and signs in everyday life. My goal has been to condense religious feeling and belief into an image that makes manifest that belief and serves as a focal point for contemplation and transformation.

Over the decades, I have traveled to the far corners of the world to see and experience the sacred in all cultures. My work reflects the influences I have absorbed -- Tibetan Buddhist art, Indian ritual art, Persian miniatures, Islamic architecture, Mexican folk art, and much more. For some reason, these spoke to me more poetically/deeply/profoundly/clearly than did the faith of my ancestors.

Ironically, what eventually brought my own heritage into my work was a book I read about a conference convened by the Dalai Lama with a diverse group of rabbis. The substance of their dialog was the similarities between Tibetan Buddhism and the more esoteric aspects of Judaism.

My current work of large scale papercuts combines life-size human images with invocations from Hebrew prayers. While the texts used in my pieces are derived from Jewish scripture (which also form the core of Christian and Muslin faiths), this work is relevant to all. As a child, I was drawn to medieval paintings and manuscripts which combined religious images with Latin texts, which, to me, were unreadable. In my adult life, I have been greatly influenced by Hindu and Buddhist art from Tibet, Nepal, India, and other countries. These works likewise incorporate languages I donít understand. Nevertheless, it is the combination of text and image making a spiritual point, rather than the precise meaning of the words, which makes them so mysterious and affecting. The use of dense pattern and architectural elements reinforce the idea that these works are visual prayers. By expressing structure, order and harmony, they represent a reverence for the laws of God and the universal order that underlies the chaos that often seems to engulf us.

Most recently, I have begun creating "Protective Amulet Costumes", covering costumes of my own design with religious texts. These are meant to be seen as objects, in and of themselves. They will also, however, be used in performance pieces.

The imagery in my work is drawn from many sources: world religions, popular culture, literature, psychology and myth, all of which serve to touch the collective soul. These images are wedded to the written invocations, which give them focus and context. In Judaism, words themselves are believed to have great power. After all, words were the tools used by God to create the universe.

As we arrive at the millennium, the ideas and images contained in this body of work take on new meaning and urgency.