Video Art Installations

Even though I am devoting most of my energies now to the painted medium, my first love in artistic creation was, and probably remains, working in the video medium. Twenty years ago I made a large number of video art compositions in analog home video format, using whatever image processing and special effects devices I could get use of or devise. About two years ago after reviewing these works I found them to be still engaging and even cutting-edge. I bought an inexpensive device to convert the works to digital and some editing programs and through my home computer I was able to rejuvenate them into works that could be presented in DVD installations and screenings. The following is a partial listing with some stills taken at random from videos. The stills are only small hint as to the intensive visual dance of the real time video presentation, which for various reasons I am unable to place on this web site.

The Sacred Letters

1. Overture of the Sacred Letters (11 minutes) which shows each of the Hebrew letters in the torah scribal style for about 30 seconds with track of special electronic music derived by assigning each Hebrew letter of the first chapter in Genesis a specific tone 1.5 seconds long and instrument and then "playing" the letters of Genesis one after the other.

2 The complete version of the Sacred Letters. (72 minutes without sound) Each of the 22 Hebrew scribal letters is presented as a separate module (4-8 minutes) with its own unique color scheme, video dance and special effects. You will find a great variation of styles, from the minimalist Dalet (ד) to the wildly psychedelic (צ), the sensual Chet (ח), the surrealist Kuf (ק) and the mandala symmetry of the Ayin (ע) and more. These "differences" have correlations with ideas from Kabbalah teachings about the letters (hinted at by the subtitle to each module).

link to subtitles to modules

It would be most effective to show as an installation each module side by side or as a 2 x 11 matrix on 22 screens each attached to its own DVD device and running continuously.

א	ב	ג	ד	ה	ו	ז	ח	ט	י	כ
ת	ש	ר	ק	צ	פ	ע	ס	נ	מ	ל

What comes to mind is the famous code א- ת ב- ש (AT-BASH) , where the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet connects to the last and the second letter with the second from the last and so on. A more complicated installation would be to place the screens inside large cardboard or plywood cutouts in the shape of the letters which would stand in middle of an exhibition space and people would pass through like in a maze and hopefully be amazed.

The Lights of Hanukah

3. A Lamp of G-d Is a Man's Soul: DVD video based on Video Kabbalah Meditations on the Lights of Hanukah in eight silent modules of 4-5 minutes each for a total of 30 minutes. A video art composition based on special effects and feedback interface with the actual burning lights of the Hanukah menorah but having an artistic and universal relevance not restricted to the Jewish holiday alone or a Jewish audience.

Some low definition samples from the composition (with a sound track) are available on YouTube:

The First Light: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHheFYBfkgU

The Fourth Light: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDzaV_Ksmu0

The Eighth Light: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fddvOWqNZe4

Most effectively viewed as an auto-run eight monitor installation, each module being seen on separate but adjacent monitors.

Hebrew Explanation - עברית
http://www.art.net/TheGallery/Vision/HANUKA-HEB.html

The Twelve Tribes

12 TRIBES

4. The Twelve Tribes - DVD video wall installation (3 minutes when run simultaneously) based on 12 screens showing as video art the Hebrew names of the Twelve Tribes as incised on the gem stones of the Kho-shen, or the breastplate of the High Priest, each tribe having its special visual dance, color and special effects, according to attached explanation. The monitors could be placed in a matrix three across and four high, according to the format of the Kho-shen, as in the poster below.

Voyage into the Matza Interior

Matza

5. Voyage into the Matza Interior (18 Minutes). An extended comparison of the "round" hand-kneaded matza and the full moon. Extreme close-ups of the matza texture turn into a remarkable "lunar" and even otherworldly landscape replete with crevices and craggy mountains. The micro becomes the macro and vice versa. With a modern music (electronic & flute) track, which gives it a special ambiance. It even has the sound effect of the artist munching noisily on a matza.

Some low definition samples from the composition (with a sound track) are available on YouTube:

1. Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGJYaEvqr7k

2. Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8qtqroA-90

3. Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTkFUstBLtQ

For more information on Matza Video press this line link

Meditation in a Jerusalem Field

6. Meditation in a Jerusalem Field (21 minutes) Live ruminations by the videographer as he roams with his camera through what was once a typical undeveloped lot near the Insane Asylum in Givat Shaul, an old traditional neighborhood in Jerusalem, and meditates (or perhaps hallucinates with a Van Gogh-like intensity) on the spiny weeds, the junk, the stones and the ants trying to find the “harmony of nature” and a reason for being, while hearing the grunts & screams of the inmates of the asylum in the background.

http://youtu.be/kARLIbZRflY

Songs - USA

7. Selected Resurrected 8mm films
SONGS - USA - 1964
Two short 8 silent mm film clips resurrected and re-edited to digital format. Visual poems (without audio) on the Badlands in South Dakota and Sea & Cypress on California Coast.
A tribute to my mentor, Stan Brakhage. Quality DVD version available for museum & gallery installation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfwlWOFeGk

Memories of Hadar HaTorah

MEMORIES OF HADAR HATORAH - BROOKLYN NY - 1965
Four short silent 8 mm film clips transferred to digital video and recently re-edited.
Poetic "energy" impressions (without audio) of the Hadar HaTorah yeshiva in Brooklyn NY, including 770 Quivered, a wedding with vigor,
before and after clips of a baal tsuva student. Quality DVD version available for museum & gallery installation.

http://youtu.be/HRtv5O4wUR8

Shaking 770

I made a short film almost fifty years ago (!) of the central synagogue of Chabad at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. I used double perforated 16 mm film and then had it slit in the middle so it could be projected in the old 8mm film projector, so the beginning could be the end and the end, the beginning. It created a quivering strobe effect or what I call: Shaking or Shakers, which is a correct translation for the word "haredi", a term used to describe ultra-Orthodox Jews, since they like to "shake" when praying. The effect has been enhanced by my joining to the clip an exact copy in reverse, so it could be played as an "endless seamless shaking loop"
Quality DVD version available for museum & gallery installation.
http://youtu.be/QbPTUygi3io

Jerusalem Memories

Jerusalem Memories - 1967
Three short silent 8 mm film clips transferred to digital video and recently re-edited.
Poetic impressions (without audio) of the Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem in 1967. Titles include Kosher Meat, Resurrection Meditation on Mount of Olives, Bringing the first Sefer Torah into the Old City
Quality DVD version available for museum & gallery installation.
http://youtu.be/3_EnAuGKFJk

Kfar Chabad Visual Melodies

Kfar Chabad Visual Melodies
Two short silent 8 mm film clips transferred to digital video and recently re-edited.
Poetic impressions (without audio) filmed during the short period I was living in Kfar Chabad in Israel:
1.Waiting for the Moshiach (Messiah) coming on a cloud or a donkey
2. Elevating the Nefesh HaB'hamit (Animal Soul) during prayer.
Quality DVD version available for museum & gallery installation.
http://youtu.be/R2SzJ8Xuc_k

Meditation on a Point

8. Meditation on a Point (5 minutes) a hypnotic video which is based on an adaptation of my op art Meditation on a Point painting:
http://youtu.be/bjuCs7gb24Q

Farbrengen

9. Farbrengen (24 minutes) A video art interpretation of a festive gathering of the renowned Habad-Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneersohn, with his hassidic followers. The supernal special effects and evocative narrative track attempt to render the vast excitement and spiritual energy that was generated during this typical gathering, called Farbrengen, that occurred over twenty years ago. In three parts:

Part One describes the relation of hassid to the Rebbe and the efficacy of Blessing.
http://youtu.be/Yxl27tcqOCc

Part Two presents a short discourse by the Rebbe.
http://youtu.be/a4mpb-w7bJo

Part Three concludes with a finale of hassidic songs with the Rebbe's active participation.
http://youtu.be/-qzNwx49diQ

10. TV Interviews and Slideshows

South African TV Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6m08AOmlFc
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uipu7j6j_Vs

Slideshow: 3-D Triptych Trips
http://youtu.be/tYappAvMyA4http://youtu.be/tYappAvMyA4

Slideshow: Dialogues
http://youtu.be/TU9LmM8S6V4

Slideshow: 3-D Congealings
http://youtu.be/DBN0S9dqXUI

Slideshow:Mystic Turn-arounds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOPgWRe9b2Q&feature=youtu.be

Slideshow:Techno-Fire:
http://youtu.be/0Z7k9xUmhag

In addition to the videos, many of the paintings shown
may be available as prints and giclees, please inquire:
http://dov-lederberg.artistwebsites.com/
or
https://www.facebook.com/ArtDovLederberg/app_309028460694

Serious collectors interested in the original paintings should contact:

Telephones in Israel:

mobile: 052-662-7620

NEW Tel/Fax: 04-656-3095

(972-4-656-3095)

USA telephone: 1-720-477-6433

Canada telephone: 1-438-792-0806

Mailing address:

POB 1206, Tzfat Israel 13111

Email address: vision@art.net