Berit Engen WEFT and D'RASH – A Thousand Jewish Tapestries


WOMEN OF S'FARAD (I)
Black Lace and Gates
 
Wrought iron gates and lace clothing are barriers with the quality of a transparent veil: one can appear seducing and/or rejecting, observing and/or hiding. The artisan techniques are decorative and ornamental with sharp contrasts between the material (most often mono-chromatic) and open spaces.

Two contrasting colors within each tapestry give the series an electric but balanced feel, and each tapestry contains a sense of both tension and release.
 
A pattern is introduced in the first tapestry and repeated in the following three, but in each with a different number of warp and weft threads. The uneven distance between the respective threads changes the proportions of the pattern so that the diminished and enlarged images, though resembling each other, may appear quite different.


 
- 4 tapestries. (Series completed.)
- Click on images for more information.



WOMEN OF S'FARAD (II)
– Village by the Sea in Rhythm of la Luna

          Imagine nighttime in past centuries before electricity: when only a sliver of the moon appeared on the overwhelmingly vast night sky, the darkness below was pervasive. Then, during the nights when the moon was fullest, everything but colors were visible. Life would be, intentionally or accidentally, hidden or revealed. As the moon waxed and waned there were the in-between-nights of anticipations and maybe regrets. The moon smilingly regulates ebb and flow, and with its capability to move oceans it naturally can affect ounces of fluids in our brains and bodies. Long ago, when we were in tune with the elements, it gave structure to our uncertain lives.  


- 6 tapestries (series completed).
- Click on images for more information.
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