Elisheva Revah is a beautiful force of nature. A deeply spiritual and instinctive artist, her work is multi-disciplinary, spanning performance art, paint and sculpture. Elisheva grew up in the mountains, the child of two artists, and absorbed an invaluable education in creative thinking. Her father taught her that the artist’s role in society is to be a source of inspiration, and her determination to reveal the beauty and meaning in life is what breathes such visceral vigor into Elisheva’s work.
Having initially trained as a dancer, movement is Elisheva’s first language. The first thing she did when she decided to practise art as a living was to go in the studio and just move, just use her body. “I know a painting is good based on how free I felt whilst doing it,” Elisheva relates. “It’s very intuitive.” Watching Elisheva paint is enchanting, her brush a graceful extension of her limbs, the paint dancing its way onto the page. The resultant work is at once mystical and empowering, a celebration of feminine energy and the inherent strength and dynamism of a woman’s body.
“Femininity, the potential of a woman, her superpowers, the goddess inside me, the muse. This is what inspires me – women in general.” As part of a new generation of female artists exploring their own bodies, Elisheva’s work, particularly her performance art, grants her permission to be both muse and creator, observed yet also observing. “I need to create,” Elisheva says, “because it’s what makes me feel alive.” For Elisheva, the act of creating harnesses the godliness within her, and art is her medium to explore the ancient wisdom in nature and the world around us. She’s inspired not just by her Jewish roots, but also by Sufism and Buddhism. Art is “almost a ceremony, a ritual.”
This philosophy is inherent in her current multimedia project, “Hallah,” currently showing at the Jewish Museum of Venice as part of the Venice Biennale. A diptych video art, this project delves into the symbolism of the Jewish traditional bread. Whilst the braid of dough is the visual motif of the piece, representative of a woman’s mystery and complexity, it is the concept of nourishment, both physical and spiritual, that the piece really explores. At a time when the world around us is deafeningly loud, “Hallah” is a calm oasis, an homage to the power that resides in the quiet strength of the feminine creative craft.
