Gil Joseph Wolman: singular and plural
"There is no existence without separation"
Gil Joseph Wolman's work shows the artist to be a painter, filmmaker, visual artist, sculptor and, above all, a poet.
The creation of humanity, mankind and ideas begins with separation.
In discovering Gil Joseph Wolman's works, I can't help thinking of the Talmud. This independent man, who is both secular and wild, and who says "No fathers, only sons", could answer me as he did with Guy Debord: "One does not exclude the other."
"In the beginning the earth was a void and in darkness. God said, "Let there be light", and there was light. And He saw the light was good and divided it from the darkness. And that was the first day."
Gil Joseph Wolman separates the white and black image. This is the Anticoncept.
"He said "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were below from the waters that were above. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning. That was the second day."
Gil Joseph Wolman separated images to create a space between them, which was referred to as the separatist movement. He separated the image into two parts and connected it with a word or phrase. Separating and connecting are what makes the decompositions.
The bible is written without vowels. These are absent yet present, giving air to the consonants and allowing them to breathe.
Gil Joseph Wolman called on this breathing in his audio poems that used only breath. These were called megapneumes.
The bible is written without punctuation. Gil Joseph Wolman similarly left his work open to interpretation, using neither commas nor full stops. "When you put a full stop to mark the end of the line, the text finishes where the comment begins."
"Tell your son and your younger son what I have done."
"See the memory", proclaimed the description of one art work in the last exhibition that could take place. Steeped in humour, Gil Joseph Wolman said, "The creation is what is left once the removalists have gone."
I wasn't around at the time of the l'Officiel des Galeries, which Wolman led with characteristic independence. However, on the various times I had the pleasure of meeting his wife Charlotte, she brought them to life.
