Howard Lerner's UniverseFollow the link for photos. Lerner is clearly aware of the extra-biblical mystical traditions about Enoch, not just the biblical passage.
Richard McBee (The Jewish Press)
Posted May 26 2010
Sculpture and the Bible
howardlernerart.com
Walking into Howard Lerner's studio is like falling headfirst into a Tanach made of sculpture. Right near the door is a 10-foot high Tower of Babel. Partially hidden behind this behemoth is a thoroughly idiosyncratic Vision of Ezekiel. Further along into the somewhat cluttered, but not chaotic, studio is a vista of massive sculptures; The Ark of the Covenant looms ahead while Elijah's Ascension is on the left, just past a 10 foot depiction of Enoch. To be totally honest, it's all a bit frightening. Every piece is a diverse assemblage of found objects hammering home a specific passage with a literal determination. It is as if one is inhabiting a Biblical Hall of Mirrors, each holy book or personage examined scrupulously, exaggerated and then lovingly depicted.
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Ezekiel's Vision (2006) is a bit sparer, with more emphasis on text. The first chapter of Ezekiel is a natural inspiration for Lerner as he plunges into a multitude of visual metaphors and signs for prominent textual passages. The sculpture is a wobbly jumble atop a skinny-legged base, effectively building to the very top with a pair of hands in Priestly Blessing that support the Tetragrammaton. The blessing initially reflects the fact that Ezekiel is herein named a Cohen. But there is more.
According to the artist the entire vision is meant to elevate the viewer towards seeing the Throne of God and thereby literally ascending to Hashem, The Name, at the very top of the sculpture. Moving downward we encounter a blue cut-glass light fixture that sits atop an inverted lampshade, its panels used as a makeshift parchment scroll for the first dozen verses of the prophet's famous Vision of the Chariot. Further down into the body of the sculpture an old fashioned bellows is aptly labeled "ruach," and is balanced by a box of auto lamps attached to a disk labeled "Hashmal - Electrum." Just above them gerbil cages abound inset with myriad depictions of eyes reflecting the divine creatures Ezekiel saw. Lerner's choice of utilizing extremely mundane objects, preferably old objects, is part of his strategy of asserting the spiritual potential in everything through an ancient vision.
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Enoch - Heaven is clearly a sculpture of a figure standing. His head is one of the most charming depictions in the studio, golden crystal eyes glowing above his bottle cap beard, the very image of an ancient Middle Easterner. His face is framed by two profiles of perhaps his own visage, hinting at his self-consciousness at being favored by the Divine. "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not: for God took him." As Enoch begins his ascent to heaven his skinny legs sprout flames, he holds a golden orb (actually a toilet tank float) that sprouts a miraculous bush. A winged angel, Uriel, floats above and channels Divine secrets to Enoch in the form of two scrolls over the sage's head.
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I especially like the Hashmal as a box of auto lamps.