Can Art Magazine - Publication - Irit Biber / “Freezing a Moment in Life…”

Irit Biber / “Freezing a Moment in Life…”

In her interview with Dr. Noga Rosenfarb, Irit Biber says, “I don’t sculpt by series – my sculpture is eclectic, I wed different cultures and styles and throw in some imagination, a touch of humor or a frozen moment in life. In recent years, abstract sculpture has also been a draw.”
The three pieces presented here echo her statements about the manifest and latent in her works. With a touch of the abstract, these sculptures pulse with vivid imagination, which coils into the surrounding space with forms and colors, shaping up as something that has its legs grounded in a hint of reality, while its head verges on the fantasy, shared by the artist and viewer alike.
The eclectic nature cited by the artist probably reflects in the multiple styles, materials and techniques she has employed over the years. But the cultural and content-related hints thrown up by the works, which embark on a brave, new different path, suggest decoration on the one hand and materiality on the other. They imply fantasy, imagination and well-defined figurativeness. As she engages in the sculpting work, which according to her, is not unlike “freezing a moment in life”, the viewer seeks that out-of-sight moment, which the artist leaves open for anyone to translate; because her subjective moment as an artist – the frozen moment – doesn’t have to be the first one that comes to the viewer’s mind. This in turn leaves the work open for interpretation, while stoking interest and curiosity.
And there, along the thin line between realistic and fantastic, between defined shape and its abstract form, we can spy hints of Eve – the apple, the serpent – on the one hand, and imaginary (or alien) creatures on the other.
Biber’s sculpture work speaks in matter, shape, abstraction, color and story, which the viewer can spin for themselves, inspired by what they behold.
In most cases, her point of departure is a story that guides and inspires her. “Most of my sculptures have a story behind them.” From this point she embarks on the path of sculpting, creating and begetting the new “creature”, while the story remains behind; it was the wind in the sails of the creative endeavor, but now it is subsumed in the sculpture and allows a broader reading, where everyone is welcome to make up their own tale, or merge, knowingly or otherwise, with the “original story”.
At the end of the day, Biber’s sculptures are a storyboard, which tells itself through visibility, and at times this seems more than enough.
The “frog”, first incarnated in clay, then reincarnated in casts (bronze and polymer), stands for the artist, according to her, as well as for her meditative state when she sculpts. Interestingly, it is actually the “frog” – a creature bouncy by nature – that the artist chose to place in the resting position, immersing it in a spiritual world of reflection. We have learnt by now that being and life comprise contradictions, which can spur growth, just as the frog may become a prince.

dr. Nurit Cederbuim.

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