"Licht Triptich" - by Dr. Shirat-Miriam Shamir
The Hebrew alphabet letters are known as a huge and latent power. Every letter is a nucleus of
power for actual growth. The day in which the code of the letters is revealed, will be the day of the
discovery of all discoveries.
The world as we know it, which according to the Sources was created "out of nothing" ("yesh
me'ein"), evolved from an infinite, ethereal entity into a corporeal, limited and finite reality. This
world is the tricky world of phenomena, seemingly swept by the senses, with the spirit beating
behind these events and indeed is their driving force, disappeared from view and likely to be
revealed only to those who strive to seek it.
The Bible's opening sentence, in Genesis Chapter 1, describes the creation of the heavens and the
earth, two inherently different entities that are nevertheless mutually complementary – the spiritual
and the material. Man has the choice to follow reason that is supported by the senses and to view
the corporeal as representing all of reality itself, or he may observe and introspect in order to
penetrate that which transcends reality. Wholeness is found where these two entities meet.
According to the Sages, the word "Breishit" ("In the beginning") hints that the world was created by
"B" (two in Hebrew) and "Rashiot" (heads – leading concepts) – will and wisdom, two forces that are
necessarily aroused prior to every act of creativity or of creation. According to the Kabala (a body of
mystical teachings of rabbinical origin), these two forces were also aroused in the Creator prior to
the creation of the world. Silvia Licht's creations reflect her consistent search for signs of concealed
wisdom and for the invisible spirit behind reality as we know it. Through the lengthy and laborious
processes of examination, assembling and attempts at deciphering, she strives to reveal the wisdom
and intrinsic laws that constitute the foundation stones of Creation.
According to Kabalistic tradition, the world is revealed in three dimensions – place, time and motion.
These dimensions exist in the corporeal world only and are the features that characterize it. These
elements contain all possible movements in Licht’s art.
According to Kabalistic literature, the Light (Infinite Light) is a sobriquet for the Creator and for the
source of life. Light has qualities of the infinite, it moves extremely fast and it encircles all reality. Its
quality transcends material boundaries. Movement – a principle of life in the phenomenal world is
derived from a sense of deficiency and the desire to be replenished. Light, the energy of life, has the
ability to fill the emptiness to maximum capacity.
Licht touches on the dynamics of movement and filling (light and vessel), the aspiration to wholeness
and to the primal axioms of the traditions of the Creation and interrelation of material and spirit. She
attempts to investigate the primal movement that created the basic forms of nature that constituted,
according to ancient sciences, the foundation stones of Creation. Her point of departure is Sacred
Letters and words, which more than anything illustrates material as an enveloping spirit. In trying to
realize the concept, she creates the verbal biblical rationale, and likewise generates a visual weave
in the new series of works in collage on canvas. Geometric forms of letters cut out by laser on
canvas are combined with painting. These works contain identical letters of the Hebrew alphabet that
form words and narrative keys. Her works elicit a renewed memory of historical experiences in a
specific time and space. Out of a controversial reality, in political and social conflict, she makes an
attempt to form a new picture of the world that relies on universal spiritual reservoirs of knowledge
and current scientific discoveries, from new knowledge she has acquired in electronic music, video
and multimedia during the last ten years. The works refer to the semantics and metaphysics of
letters, words, numbers, forms, signs and symbols in the context of diverse cultures along the
temporal axis. These rationalistic symbols reflect the ephemeral nature and instability of the material
dimension as well as the existing order in nature that indicates an incredibly ordered process of
Creation in which each and every thing has both a body and a soul.