The artist Cristina Weiss is first and foremost a dancer but is also a classical ballet teacher who has raised and fostered a long line of pupils. Finding expression in the movement of the body and its limbs, Weiss’s original creativity is carried from one end of the stage to the other.
Living and working in Tel Aviv, the same desire to create inspires her today as well in her artistic work. Weiss initially worked with cloth which transformed into oil paintings. Later on she began sculpting with wood and stone, both polishing and engraving. With much to convey, Weiss approaches each project anew in her search for a new and innovative creative language.
Skipping to March 2020, the world is in turmoil with our habits and lifestyle changing from day-to-day. Pent up in our homes, some of us are desperate, while others take advantage of opportunities to engage in activities which are personally meaningful. Daily life becomes circumscribed and we have to avail ourselves of our inner resources, which come to our assistance. For Christina, this point of time became an opportunity for a new beginning.
Using small pieces of cloth, thread in various colors, thoughts; memories; wishes; regrets; sights, and love become the source from which she draws inspiration, all of which are intertwined with the sensitivity which characterizes her. At this point the woman of movement takes up a needle and thread, creating embroidery in a free and creative manner.
Cristina calls them humorously “shmates,” and perhaps would be called in well-informed circles “arte povera.” The name is unimportant – the result is without classic embroidery and textile collage. Her work is “a bit of this and a bit of that,” but brings its own variance: the superposition of colorful backgrounds, drawn together by thread, sometimes telling a story, always recreating childhood memories -sometimes it is figurative but mostly abstract.
One of Cristina’s friends, an artist and intellectual, who has known her well for many years said: “this assembly of “shmates” reminds me of a ballet which Cristina created several years ago, which was performed on several stages in Israel and in Rome. The same poetry runs like a thread and connects dances, drawings and the wonderful “shmates”.
In Cristina’s embroideries there is a great wealth of color but they also convey a sense of humor with the inclusion of several “sketches” as if taken from a child’s exercise book, it is a portrait stitched with thread in the spirit of creativity.
Weiss’s solo exhibition can be found in the Office Gallery in Tel Aviv, 6, Zamenhoff Street
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Thursday 10.00-16.00, Friday: 10.00-13.00
Curator: Rachel Sukman
Facebook: Cristina Weiss
