On the Existential and Cosmic in Reuven Kadim's Works
(Appeared in the catalogue to the artist's echibition in the Senate Gallery, Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Beersheva, 2003. Prof. Haim Maor is the Curator of Exhibitions.)
The exhibition "Here, From the Tigris to the Pillars of Hercules" spans a selection of Reuven (Berman) Kadim's new works. Some of these were created in recent years, others – especially for the current show.
Kadim is an exceptional artist in our midst. This is primarily because his body of work is inextricably linked to the philosophical theories he develops, which are the motivation and source of his visual work. They are multidisciplinary theories that combine, juxtapose and unite corpora of knowledge from the fields of science, theology, art, mythology and super-technology. They originate in the elementary particles of the cosmic and existential order, evolving into intricate, ostensibly chaotic patterns that are ultimately revealed as the particulars of an absolute, logical order.
Secondly, Kadim is an exceptional artist since his body of work realizes modernist artistic perceptions and utopian beliefs about order and progress that went bankrupt and disappeared from our current, post-modern, dystopian world. To my mind, Kadim's “exceptionality” renders him a unique, profound, sophisticated, uncompromising artist unswayed by fleeting fashions.
The title of the show, Here, From the Tigris to the Pillars of Hercules, suggests a specific place (the Mediterranean Basin) and a specific time (from ancient times to the present), and that which lies beyond them. In a single, symbiotic whole, it encapsulates the here-and-now and the there-and-then: geography, history and mythology. From the flowing, ever-changing River Tigris with palm trees growing on its banks and its waters that call to mind the Garden of Eden that may have surrounded it in the olden, incipient days, to the Pillars of Hercules that stand static and firm at the Strait of Gibraltar, with the Mediterranean Basin, the heart of the East, on one side, and the Atlantic Ocean, the unknown route to the West, on the other.
The basic shape of the stable vertical geometrical pillar and the dynamic organic shape of the palm branches are analogous to the basic elements comprising Reuven Kadim's artistic language. It takes its foundations from nature and its representations in scientific formulae, fractal theory, and the architecture of ancient Greek temples and Islamic arabesques.
Another visual origin of his works is the language of Minimalism, a modernist artistic trend that evolved in the 1960s and culminated in the 1970s. Its adherents in the world were Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Richard Serra and others, and amongst its advocates in Israel were Yehiel Shemi, Benny Efrat, Nahum Tevet, Israel Hadany, Michael Gross, and Reuven (Berman) Kadim. Characterized as reductive, rational, geometric, serial-modular, the minimalist language never struck deep roots or extensions in Israeli art (for a number of reasons that are beyond the scope of this essay). Some of the artists who operated in its spirit turned to different, lyrical directions; others developed their minimalist language until it became maximalist, colorful and chaotic (as in the case of Nahum Tevet).
Reuven Kadim's language too became richer in the 1980s, and seems to have changed radically. A closer scrutiny of its components, however, reveals – even today – a demand for order. It is a demand in two senses. First, striving and calling for existential and cosmic order in an era in which global chaos has become a way of life. Second, a demand and interpretation of the concept of 'order' as it is revealed in the hidden layers of the elementary particles, of Chaos Theory, and the basic formulae comprising the super-structures in the ancient temples and Islamic ornaments. For Kadim, the terms 'ornament' and 'decoration' are erroneous, deceptive synonym for 'pattern.' He maintains that “the decorative patterns are made of basic geometrical units subtly attached to one another to form combinations with formal wealth that are perceived by their makers as a metaphor for the transcendental creative power.”
The visual field of the patterns has become the artist's 'playground' and a means to breathe life into the abstract minimalist theories. Thus he began painting and processing his basic forms (mainly the pentagon) in various software and printing the outcome on state-of-the-art digital printers. Elements of play, discovery and surprise have now become essential to his works. The logical modular arrays, duplicated time and again to form clusters, have spawned 'monsters': the gaps between the geometric shapes began 'growing' organically, and were revealed as identical to the Islamic geometric system and to fractal growth processes.
Thenceforth, Kadim's works began realizing his basic, optimistic view about the role of art in the world. Ada Na'amani, the curator of the artist's show at Michal House, Rehovot (November 2002), wrote in the exhibition brochure: “That view is based on a belief in art's ability to function as a spiritual gyroscope. Like the instrument installed in ships and airplanes to maintain balance, his art introduces an image of order as a counterbalance to life's chaos, reconciling opposites pertaining to nature and culture, and bridging between cultures.”