The artist discusses their creative process and how their work has evolved over time. They started by painting colorful compositions in oil on canvas in a cubist style. Later, they began deconstructing surfaces by scratching, burning, and staining cork boards. This allowed them to demolish and then rebuild forms in an intuitive, childlike way without rules. Their current process involves releasing control during an initial intuitive stage, then contemplating the unconscious imagery that emerges to emphasize shapes and figures, and finally carving and crafting ornamentation. The artist is influenced by the tensions of the Levant region as well as avant-garde movements and artists such as Joan Miró. Their background in architecture training them to move from macro concepts to details

1. 10 — revital
alcalay
Conversation
with the
artist
RA:
Looking at your work set me out on a
journey, at a first glance the images seemed like naïve
cave paintings, ancient graffiti, a capture of a crude scene
taken from a bigger outdoor context and framework.
The journey then turn towards revealing an order and beauty
withinthejaggednessandcrudeness,lightingupacomposition
of shapes and energy, creating an emotion of anticipation
for more revelations hidden in a layer yet to be disclosed.
RA Question:
Your art encompass a strong image of proprietary
practice and process which you have developed. You
have started to apply this process and set of materials
around 1998, how would you describe the path you have
made since then, how does your current work relates to
your previous work?
AS Answer:
I have always been interested in the relationship
between construction and deconstruction. In my early
works I painted colourful compositions in oil on canvas,
in the cubistic spirit. I later began exploring the other
side of creation and started to destruct the surface.
Working on cork boards, using a wood scorching pen,
screwdrivers, saws and hammers (anything that will
damage the surface), I scratch, tear, engrave and burn
the surface and then taint it or rectify it with substances
such as wine, ketchup, laundry soap, mud or iodine, each
with its own unique attributes and connotation.
Closely surrounded by expressions of big narratives, my
own drive has always been a much simpler, smaller and
childlike place of desire, the power to demolish and then
rebuild. This basic desire came from a place with no rules,
no library of knowledge, science or engineering, just an
authentic instinctual expression.
RA Question:
There is an impression that a coded layer lies hidden
within your work. Could you give us an insight into your
creative process?
AS Answer:
The first stage in my creation process is done without
thought, an intuitive process which embodies an attempt
to release control. I work with music in the background. I
then let myself lose control and create through an internal,
intuitive drive. In the second stage my unconscious
content emerge, and I often contemplate its meaning
after observing the mutilated panels, sometimes for
hours and days, and find shapes and figures in it. Like
looking on clouds and finding images. These shapes and
figures ‘ask’ me to strengthen or emphasize them. Then
comes the third stage, when I react and starts manicure
the work by gently carving and crafting it, creating
ornaments and writings.
RA Question:
What influences your work? What is the inspiration for
your images?
AS Answer:
My ecosystem, geographically and culturally, is bursting
with unrest and tension. I am inclined to be influenced by
the rhythm of the Levant’s current affairs, but moreover I
am interested with the region’s past affairs, archaeology,
old alphabets and ancient languages, the mark of its
people and the echo of the old ancient empires which
still resonates.
I relate to the Cobra avant-garde movement active from
1948 to 1951 in Europe, artists such as Karel Apple.
The work by Joan Miro, Paul Klee and Jean Dubuffet.
RA Question:
How does your background and experience as an architect,
designing and planning spaces, from concept down to small
details and numbers, relates to your art practice?
AS Answer:
Architecture is another form of art. My art has always
inspired my designs and not the other way around. The
creative process where I go from Macro to small explicit
details, guided me through many professional challenges
and has set me up to deal with randomness, errors and
inaccuracies with insight and intuition, feeling the way
rather than rationalizing it.
RA Question:
You have a distinct and consistant choice of materials,
why is that?
AS Answer:
One example is the cork oak tree which I am using in my
work, it is very resilient, this is one of the only trees that
resist and withstand forest fire.
When I have first looked at the material I had its colour
and tactility in mind, however, the more I learned about
its production process (harvested every nine years), I
understood how these trees are in a constant state of
regrowth and recurring trauma. Recovering becomes
an ethical decision. This material embodies history with
rejuvenation as its primary trait.
In my view, this is a metaphor to a universal wish to collect
the broken pieces and amend things back together out
of the chaos, a manifest of hope for the future.
Deconstruction Observasion Construction
‫‏‬Revital Alcalay, is an art consultant for private and public collections
and co-editor of the book Israel Art Now (Hebrew Edition) published
by Modan.