One of my sculptures stands on a small plaza near the main square of the commercial and industrial zone in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. I built it as a tribute to the builders of Jerusalem from the times of the Kingdom of Solomon, who built the temple on Mount Moriah, up to and including the builders of today. Since those times, the town has grown in all directions over the hills surrounding Jerusalem.

The sculpture represents what one might see through a telescope when watching a far-away galaxy which from the time of its inception continuously grows from the inside out, looking like a huge agitated mass. The background of the sculpture represents a stirring motion, matching the design on the floor.

In the lobby of the building, the floor is made of local marble, combined with imported, brown shaded marble, in the shape of the stirring motif. In the center of the stirring design is a verse written in copper lettering: "to build the house of carved stone" (Kings 1, 5:31).

A large modern builders' perpendicular or plumb bob hangs over the middle stirring assembly, representing a connection between the ancient and modern building professions. The main sculpture combines the words of the verse "four copper wheels to each machine" (Kings 1, 7:30), describing the ritual instruments in use in the Temple, as well as the industrial neighborhood of today's Talpiot. Four cogwheels are connected to one, as a modern interpretation to the ancient verse.

 

Are you interested in Udi's books on genealogy? Then click here and hold your breath!

Udi Cain (Ehud Chaikin)
chaikin@netvision.net.il

 

Nonsensculptures | Sculptures | Old drawings

Nonsensculptures

Three-dimensional, multi-meaning combinations of old or quaint objects, designed to change completely the meaning of the constituent parts. Humor and amusement are a none-too-subtle goal. Some are reminiscent of Edward Leer's nonsense poems, and others are like cryptic crosswords Each "nonsensesculpture" is a conglomeration of objects, presented as a decorative object, to be placed on a wall or shelf.

These "sculptural mutations" are a bit like "the immortal kitsch"; but they contain a deeper meaning too. Objects from different times and cultures are used to form a double meaning in a different connotation of language or culture. By mixing objects of different cultures and periods, this kind of art is an antithesis to culture and to art itself.

Homage to Galileo Galilei (2011)

Tis the final conflict,
Let each stand in his place.
The Industrial Union
shall be the human race.

Ancestors Tree (2011)


SINGER (2011)

 

The Great War (2011)

Left In Foliation
Middle Dicke Bertha
Right Hindsight prophecy

The Great War (2011)

Detail:
Left In Foliation

Deutschland Deutschland Ÿber Alles
Alles in Ordnung if out stays flation
If it manages to slip in, then like the homeless
Once again it experiences the same reaction

One two three and four
Hitler went on a Palestine tour
They sought for him but couldnÕt find
ÔCos mice had eaten him from behind

The Great War (2011)

Detail:
Middle Dicke Bertha

My great grandfather Adolf Nathanson
fought for the Fritz in WW I
while fighting over a bridge, he was gone
from a shell that blew off, leaving none

To his right is my grandfatherÕs Uncle Paul
he was an upright German and a good soldat
fought in the Great War too but crushed like a bug
by the Nazis who killed him with just a shrug

The Great War (2011)

Detail:
Right Hindsight prophecy

Paper money circulated in the year nineteen hundred and eight
ninety thousand dollars in two thousand and ten if to gold converted
though only before WW I — after that date it was too late
but he who converted and kept the gold, would have been elatedÉ

If my grandmother had had wheels she could have gone to Jerusalem.

she was born six years before these notes were spread,

it took twenty five more years when the Nazional Teutonic Gang grabbed the helm

for her to leave the Deutsches Vaterland and arrive at the Promised Land

An anti – Lope (Neapolitan) (2010)

Game instructions
¥ Dark squares for movement of antelopes.
¥ Pale squares for grass to the antelopes.
¥ Beware the Jabberwocky.
¥ Beware the Jubjub Bird.


Hade Emblems (2010)

Predator dodges meeting on ascension of Green Mountain (859 m)—association with Megiddo Mountain (187 m) and Eschatological "hell-met"

Memo (2010)

Deus Ex Machina (2010)

left: The Canaanite god ÒReshefÓ from 3000 BCE

right: Motometer, Dog Bone Hood Ornament Radiator Mascot / Thermometer by ÒAmericanÓ from 1920 CE

 

Deus Ex Machina (2010)

front

Little Green M.E.N (2009)

Maimonides (2008)

front

Maimonides (2008)

back

Little Green Man (2008)





Cutterpeeler (2006)

Who can afford an odd old Ford (2006)

A. "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wantsÉ"

B. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

A Gesture to Ladino (2005)

The Language of "The Errant Jew" of Spain.

Translation:
Comparative Measuring.
Comparison of energy to distance.
The measuring tool contains 100 milliliter of beans. Every cubic milliliter of beans produces 2 calories, altogether 200 calories.
By walking three kilometer, the body burns 200 calories.
Conclusion: 100 milliliter of beans equal three kilometers.

Slow Pigeon (1999)

 

Slow Pigeon (1999)

CanÕt Make Head or Tail of It (1998)

Little Green Ming (1996)



Algometer (1994)

Pistil (1993)

Penicillate (1993)

Roll-Britania (1993)

A Horse of Another Color (1992)

Horsefeathers (1992)

Horse fly
Fly wheel
Wheel horse

King Saul (1992)

 

(1992)

 

Picklock (1992)

Headache / Capsulitis (1992)

Handicap (1992)

All My Eggs (1992)

Perpetuum-Mobile (1992)

Piss-Off (1992)

RICHARD GEAR (1989)

Niagara (1989)

Egregious (1989)

Horscope (1989)

Chairman of the Board (1989)

 

Relatively Totem (1988)

One-stone statue
displays a statute
of much stature.

Buccinal-Trumpery (1988)

Jouster Joe Pops the Pope (1988)

 

Fire! (1988)

Sculptures

 

May Flowers (2009)
Arum Massachusetts

Ironic Tree (Adansonia digitata Ferrum) (2007)

Pendulumantis (2005)

Mšbius ex-machina (2004)

Four Copper Wheels to Each Machine (1994)

in the lobby

Four Copper Wheels to Each Machine (1994)

adorned with the artist's family

Four Copper Wheels to Each Machine (1994)

installation

Spring Time (1992)

an homage to Will Shakespeare

In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring

Domestic Quasar (1989)

Two hundred ninety and nine millions
Seven hundred ninety and two thousands
Four hundred fifty six meters –
from second to its secondary from year to years.

From a flow of corpuscles stream –
To an electromagnetic energy ray of light,
Scurries a hasty transcendental beam
To its youthful twilight.

An old quasar with his sole eye winks
A black hole emitting sounds of swallow
The galactic mixer only vibration transmits
Like a lost interstellar radiated radio.

And there was light and let there be night
And he on his foundation lies, and she deep into his belly fliesÉ

Le Grand CHARLLES (1989)

Le Grand CHARLLES (1989)
closer

PomPi d'ou (1989)

Old drawings

 

The Watermelon Eater (1971)

Pets (1971)

Zoo Walker (1971)

Through the Looking Glass (1971)

Fast Food (1971)

Fish Eye (1971)

 

Photos by Hanan Dynel.