Section 1 - You and I

from:- Yona Levy Grosman

Notes and explanations about my work - Exhibition at the Masada National Park 2007

You and I
The waves breaking against the shore,
Imprinted waves of wind in desert sands
Textures of mountains and cliffs billions of years old
The folds of time.
Nothing but the singular rhythm of infinite song
that sometimes seem so transient
and sometimes everlasting.
Mind and matter shape one another,
changing cycles,
complex simplicity.
Whirlwind of infinite song
where you and I are just a single beat
and all is one.

From “The Histroy of Thought” by Prof. Zeev Bechler.
“All scientists believe in the philosophy of science and build their scientific works along this philosophical plan. If this were not so, their works would be random, piles of unconnected declarations. Their philosophy of science is, therefore, the basis and the justification for his scientific research program”.

The same can also be said about the artist’s work.

All artists believe in the philosophy of life and build their artistic works while influenced by this philosophy. If not, their creations would be random, a collection of works lacking the thread that weaves them together. This philosophy of life is the basis and justification for their creations.

I am not comparing science with art. But both originate in the human mind and together with philosophy they are nothing but three different ways of expressing the journey that the human mind takes in its attempt to understand the infinite nature of things.

My works deal with the meeting point between finite man and infinite reality and this is the reason why I keep searching to understand the infinity of reality.

As my first guide to understanding this reality, I turned to Spinoza the great Romantic philosopher who claimed that in the infinite nature of reality man has only exercised two dimensions. And they are the material and the spiritual dimensions.
But, since these dimensions are also infinite, man has also exploited them only within a specific very limited range. For example the spectrum of light that man is able to discern. Ultraviolet and infrared light are outside of the natural human visible spectrum, and we are only able to see in these spectrums because of technologies which expand the reality. So, everything that any individual may think, feel, say, dream, experience in any mystical context or may build as instruments to expand or deepen their knowledge or thoughts, will always remain within these two dimensions.

All that any human is able to do is to expand the reality here and there while the infinite will always be there in front of them like an inviting country which they can never reach.

Therefore I thought that in order to understand these claims I must try to see if I can understand the infinite dimensions in space. I am inviting you to do so with me, For this purpose I draw an imaginary horizontal line and add a vertical line for height. I have created a space. But no matter how far I extend my lines, my space will always be finite.

And what about time? I again try it myself. I look back at the past and into the future, the present is a problem because of its elusiveness. But no matter how far I go, forward and back, my thoughts will always have a starting point and an end. The result: total failure to really understand time and space.

But, it is interesting, exactly where I fail to understand the dimensions of the infinite, precisely then, I am able to understand myself. And perhaps it is more correct to say I am able to understand my most essential and basic limit which is linear thought; the principal tool that I possess, as a human being, for dealing with understanding of infinity.

This is the reason why, in all my works, you will find the line. The line is my thinking tool as a human being, in my dealing with reality and therefore it is what represents me in all my attempts to reproduce on the canvas any facet of reality. After the philosopher, after it became obvious to me that naturally I have no chance of understanding the vastness and infinite nature of reality, I turned to other teachers. To those whose understanding expands reality for us. To the people of science.