PaRDeS
LABAlights #2 - Shvat / January 2010 - New Edens
Editor: Elissa Strauss
Art Editor: Anat Litwin
Contributors: LABA Fellows
Theme: New Edens - This month we are looking at the regular appearance of new Edens, whether in nation-states, national parks, or the ideas of the Romantics. As we have continued to study the pardes, we have started to realize that the archetype of a pure and sacred place appears often in our own lives and in the culture we live in. In this edition of LABAlights, we look at the strong pull that the idea of Eden has for all of us.
Art Editor: Anat Litwin
Contributors: LABA Fellows
Theme: New Edens - This month we are looking at the regular appearance of new Edens, whether in nation-states, national parks, or the ideas of the Romantics. As we have continued to study the pardes, we have started to realize that the archetype of a pure and sacred place appears often in our own lives and in the culture we live in. In this edition of LABAlights, we look at the strong pull that the idea of Eden has for all of us.
LABAlights is a monthly publication of the LABA fellows at the 14th Street Y. It is published at the beginning of the Jewish month, when the new moon is on the rise. Every month LABA fellows and guests present essays, commentary, art, and music around a theme connected to the pardes.
ESSAY: New Edens by Elissa Strauss
Malibu Creek State Park
When I was 16 I fell in love with the Transcendentalists. This group of early 19th century New England writers and philosophers which included, most famously, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, were rebels and idealists, proto-hippies who believed in individualism and the subliminal power of nature. This was the first real exposure I had to outsider thinking, and for suburban-bound me these ideas, albeit around 150 years old, felt revolutionary.
My high school was located in an interesting corner of Los Angeles, where the glut and glamor of the Valley met the bohemian highlands of Topanga Canyon and the Santa Monica Mountains. While the glut and glamor may have won out at my high school -- a running source of falsely ironic pride was that the students had nicer cars than the teachers -- I would soon discover the other side via the driver's license that my 16 years afforded me.
This was my junior year, the time slotted for American literature in my school district. By the time I got my driver's license in mid-November we had already made it through the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, and had moved onto Transcendentalism, which quickly won me over.
Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood. Emerson
READ THE REST HERE
My high school was located in an interesting corner of Los Angeles, where the glut and glamor of the Valley met the bohemian highlands of Topanga Canyon and the Santa Monica Mountains. While the glut and glamor may have won out at my high school -- a running source of falsely ironic pride was that the students had nicer cars than the teachers -- I would soon discover the other side via the driver's license that my 16 years afforded me.
This was my junior year, the time slotted for American literature in my school district. By the time I got my driver's license in mid-November we had already made it through the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, and had moved onto Transcendentalism, which quickly won me over.
Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood. Emerson
READ THE REST HERE
ART: Sacred Frontiers - The Artist, Art, and Nature by Anat Litwin
In order to address the idea of artistic representations of new Edens, I revisited two iconic nature-based American art projects that integrate ecological themes with the distinctly American appetite for new frontiers;
Spiral Jetty (image above, left) an earthwork created by Robert Smithson in 1970, and Flood (image above, right) - a community based collaborative hydroponic garden built in a storefront on the north side of Chicago created by the HAHA collective in 1994 to help cure people with HIV.
While the Spiral Jetty is a one-man art piece which is set in a no-mans-land in the heart of a rural desert, Flood is planted in a vacant storefront in the city of Chicago. Spiral Jetty is a formal / poetic intervention in the land while Flood is a poetic functional manipulation of vegetation with the purpose of serving the ill. Their different aesthetic, functional and conceptual aspects bring to mind the differences between a zen / meditation garden, and a holistic garden. In one the artist takes on the role of a meditative land designer / poet / pioneer, and in the other, the role of artist becomes that of a healer providing natural remedy for two severe contemporary problems: HIV and isolation.
Despite the great differences between these two art projects both Spiral Jetty and Flood create new paradigms for how art and nature can be linked. Their juxtaposition reveals important shared values: In both cases nature is not merely "represented" by art, but rather nature becomes the actual means of art. Both projects face the fragile human condition with an active heroic approach through art which is in essence ephemeral; They both ask to reverse to some extent the harsh fate of being banned from Eden by taking on the act of creation and forming a new 'garden' - literally or metaphorically.
Opposed to the old Eden, these new Edens are bluntly aware of the presence of the serpent in the garden - mans temporality on earth - in form (Spiral Jetty), or through the direct confrontation with illness and death (Flood). They exist as sober Edens in a broken world, and point to the fact that if there is any chance for human redemption it will take place through nature. They are desperate, hopeful frontiers, existential to the core;
READ FULL VERSION
While the Spiral Jetty is a one-man art piece which is set in a no-mans-land in the heart of a rural desert, Flood is planted in a vacant storefront in the city of Chicago. Spiral Jetty is a formal / poetic intervention in the land while Flood is a poetic functional manipulation of vegetation with the purpose of serving the ill. Their different aesthetic, functional and conceptual aspects bring to mind the differences between a zen / meditation garden, and a holistic garden. In one the artist takes on the role of a meditative land designer / poet / pioneer, and in the other, the role of artist becomes that of a healer providing natural remedy for two severe contemporary problems: HIV and isolation.
Despite the great differences between these two art projects both Spiral Jetty and Flood create new paradigms for how art and nature can be linked. Their juxtaposition reveals important shared values: In both cases nature is not merely "represented" by art, but rather nature becomes the actual means of art. Both projects face the fragile human condition with an active heroic approach through art which is in essence ephemeral; They both ask to reverse to some extent the harsh fate of being banned from Eden by taking on the act of creation and forming a new 'garden' - literally or metaphorically.
Opposed to the old Eden, these new Edens are bluntly aware of the presence of the serpent in the garden - mans temporality on earth - in form (Spiral Jetty), or through the direct confrontation with illness and death (Flood). They exist as sober Edens in a broken world, and point to the fact that if there is any chance for human redemption it will take place through nature. They are desperate, hopeful frontiers, existential to the core;
READ FULL VERSION
MUSIC: The Boss and his American Eden by Stephen Hazan Arnoff
On the album he recorded when the cancer had almost taken him, Warren Zevon was joined by Bruce Springsteen for Disorder in the House. Springsteen shreds on a typically ironic and lucid Zevon shot to the gut, where body, house, and country are all lost.
Gardens of Eden: [See LABAlights #1]
Disorder in the house
Reptile wisdom
Zombies on the lawn staggering around...
It's the home of the brave and the land of the free
Where the less you know the better off you'll be
In the January/February 2010 issue of The Atlantic, James Fallows writes:
Through the entirety of my conscious life, America has been on the brink of ruination, or so we have heard, from the launch of Sputnik through whatever is the latest indication of national falling apart or falling behind. Pick a year over the past half century, and I will supply an indicator of what at the time seemed a major turning point for the worse.
As I complete the final proof for a chapter on Springsteen and the Bible for Theorizing the Boss (Rowman & Littlefield, Fall 2010), I have relived most of his music more than once this year. Though his work may lack Dylan’s gravitas, Randy Newman’s cleverness, and Zevon’s snarl, nobody lovingly laments the American Eden like Bruce – his songs always brimming with both gritty apocalypse and a seemingly unquenchable, naïve hope.
READ THE REST HERE
Gardens of Eden: [See LABAlights #1]
Disorder in the house
Reptile wisdom
Zombies on the lawn staggering around...
It's the home of the brave and the land of the free
Where the less you know the better off you'll be
In the January/February 2010 issue of The Atlantic, James Fallows writes:
Through the entirety of my conscious life, America has been on the brink of ruination, or so we have heard, from the launch of Sputnik through whatever is the latest indication of national falling apart or falling behind. Pick a year over the past half century, and I will supply an indicator of what at the time seemed a major turning point for the worse.
As I complete the final proof for a chapter on Springsteen and the Bible for Theorizing the Boss (Rowman & Littlefield, Fall 2010), I have relived most of his music more than once this year. Though his work may lack Dylan’s gravitas, Randy Newman’s cleverness, and Zevon’s snarl, nobody lovingly laments the American Eden like Bruce – his songs always brimming with both gritty apocalypse and a seemingly unquenchable, naïve hope.
READ THE REST HERE
Tree Fairies, Rona Yefman, currently on display as part of the LABA's Guests exhibition at the 14th Street Y gallery.
COMMENTARY: Deuternomoy 20:19 - 20:20 by Basmat Hazan Arnoff
Deuteronomy, chapter 20:19: When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down for the man is the tree of the field to employ them in the siege: 20: Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.
Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar -- celebrated this year on Shabbat, January 30, 2010 -- is the day that marks the beginning of a "New Year for Trees." This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.
We mark the day of Tu B'Shevat by eating fruit, particularly : grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. On this day we remember that "Man is a tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19) and reflect on the lessons we can derive from our botanical analogue.
READ THE REST HERE
Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar -- celebrated this year on Shabbat, January 30, 2010 -- is the day that marks the beginning of a "New Year for Trees." This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.
We mark the day of Tu B'Shevat by eating fruit, particularly : grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. On this day we remember that "Man is a tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19) and reflect on the lessons we can derive from our botanical analogue.
READ THE REST HERE
INTERVIEWS - The Fellows Talk About Paradise
NEWS by Becky Skoff
Don’t miss the current exhibition in the LABA Gallery, LABA’s Guests, featuring a group of distinguished artists exhibiting pieces in different visual mediums, curated by Tzili Charney and on display until January 28. The image to the left is Self Portrait by Leor Grady, which is featured in the show. Read about it in the Washington Post here.
Our next exhibition will be a guest exhibition featuring MFA students of the Pratt Institute, February 4-28.
Congratulations to Basmat Hazan Arnoff (LABA faculty) and Jesse Zaritt (LABA artist-in-residence) for the selection of MORIAH, developed as part of LABA 2008-09, for the soloNOVA Arts Festival, featuring eight performers of multiple genres in music, dance, spoken word, puppetry, magic, burlesque, monologues and traditional solo plays presented in the D•R•2 Theatre in May 2010.
Anat Litwin's exhibit Sweet Epiphanies is on display at Colson Pastry through February 10th. To see works on-line please click here.
Save the date for the 2010 LABA Festival. Performances and other events will take place from April 11-18. More information and a full schedule coming soon
To sign up for the CSA program at the 14th Street Y click here.
The 14th Street Y is the home to a 100 seat theater which is now open for rentals! This is a great space for dance, theater, and educational events. Contact becky_skoff@14streety.org for more information. SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR FEBRUARY- CALL NOW!
READ MORE NEWS HERE
Our next exhibition will be a guest exhibition featuring MFA students of the Pratt Institute, February 4-28.
Congratulations to Basmat Hazan Arnoff (LABA faculty) and Jesse Zaritt (LABA artist-in-residence) for the selection of MORIAH, developed as part of LABA 2008-09, for the soloNOVA Arts Festival, featuring eight performers of multiple genres in music, dance, spoken word, puppetry, magic, burlesque, monologues and traditional solo plays presented in the D•R•2 Theatre in May 2010.
Anat Litwin's exhibit Sweet Epiphanies is on display at Colson Pastry through February 10th. To see works on-line please click here.
Save the date for the 2010 LABA Festival. Performances and other events will take place from April 11-18. More information and a full schedule coming soon
To sign up for the CSA program at the 14th Street Y click here.
The 14th Street Y is the home to a 100 seat theater which is now open for rentals! This is a great space for dance, theater, and educational events. Contact becky_skoff@14streety.org for more information. SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR FEBRUARY- CALL NOW!
READ MORE NEWS HERE
Shvat
Shvat is the fifth month of the civil year and the eleventh month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. The fifteenth day of Shvat, Tu B'Shvat is called the "New Year of Trees." The "New Year of Trees" is the day from which the new year was reckoned (and still is in Israel) for the fruit of the trees with regard to the mitzvah of 'ma'aser' the tithe or tax that was given to the Temple, the government and the poor.
On Tu Bishvat in 1890, Rabbi Zeev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi movement, took his students to plant trees in the agricultural colony of Zichron Yaakov. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the Jewish National Fund (Keren Hakayemet L’Israel), established in 1901 to oversee land reclamation and afforestation of the Land of Israel. Over a million Israelis now take part in the Jewish National Fund's tree-planting activities organized every year on Tu Bishvat.
On Tu Bishvat in 1890, Rabbi Zeev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi movement, took his students to plant trees in the agricultural colony of Zichron Yaakov. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the Jewish National Fund (Keren Hakayemet L’Israel), established in 1901 to oversee land reclamation and afforestation of the Land of Israel. Over a million Israelis now take part in the Jewish National Fund's tree-planting activities organized every year on Tu Bishvat.
* * PLANT A TREE TODAY * *
