Noam Lifshitz
Wire Sculptor

The first time I fashioned a wire form I was 18 years old. I often went walking in the fields of the kibbutz where I grew up. Once, while walking in the fields I came across a steel band used for sealing large packages. This band had obviously been thrown away, after being opened. I fashioned the band into a form and set it on a hill top, where it seemed to fit. Since that time I have formed a special bond with metal wire, which was very plentiful in my surroundings. I would gather it up and fashion it into various forms, either two or three dimensional. The type and thickness of the wire influenced my choice of subject, as did my life experience.

By profession, I am both an artist and a historian. These seem far removed, one from the other, but I find much similarity between the two. The historian chooses facts and details, which have importance for him, and fashions them into a scene of historic reality. He recognizes the human tendency to build a complete, logical picture, and he allows himself to utilize his logic and, more important, his imagination to supply the missing details.

The wire in my art form is the knowledge. I choose to fashion it in a particular way in space. The form is completed by the beholder's imagination.
The wire figures come in various sizes, materials, and dimensions. The two dimensional figures can come as a framed picture, a greeting card, or as an invitation to a social event. Within a box frame, the figure becomes three-dimensional. It is, in essence, a two dimensional picture within a three dimensional setting. The true three-dimensional form is the wire sculpture, standing on a base, or hanging.

My ideas keep renewing themselves. The fact that I am a Jewish-Israeli artist living in Jerusalem influences my work, and my changing ideas find their expression in the subject matter and in their background.

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