Furniture Shlomo Kharusha from steel wire and aluminum

Passing the gallery

Text: Lyudmila Kryshtaleva

Magazine: N1 (46) 2001

Shlomo Harush belongs to the "flying" tribe of nomads. Modern nomads travel from country to country to live several lives instead of one. Holland, Italy and America - these are the territories already mastered by the restless Israeli The idea of ​​freedom-loving nomadism is very dear to the artist, so it is not surprising that it penetrates into his work. In Venice and New York, Harush exhibitions were held in the literal sense of the word. From morning to evening during the week frisky antelopes and the mythical Trojan Horse moved in boats and cars through the streets of cities. And the usual type of packaging became the prototype of Shlomo Harusha furniture, without which things are strictly forbidden to travel. By the way, the collection is called This side up - "This side up" (and can also be translated as "Do not turn over"). It is spreading rapidly around the world, and we have already met her at the Clio Calvi Rudi Volpi Gallery in Milan and at the London Chelsea Design Center in one of the showrooms. Having lived in Italy for several years, Harush, of course, saw and learned a lot. For him, it is, above all, a country of design. This is probably why Shlomo considers his work with furniture not as design, but as art. It's just that its objects are such that they can also be functional. Useful sculptures, as the author calls them. Items from the This side up collection are deliberately simple in form - naive and primitive, known from time immemorial, timeless. In fact, these are the archetypes of a chair, chair, table. Portraits, as the artist himself says. Shlomo works mainly with steel wire and aluminum. "When I hold in my hands the end of a flexible wire, it seems to me that I draw with a pencil. Only the images are three-dimensional, not two-dimensional." And indeed, his sculptures sometimes resemble good graphics. The wire is graphic, and the sheet aluminum is what? Painted? Perhaps yes. The crumpled white metal planes are extraordinarily spectacular and rich in color, so to speak. By the way, Shlomo says that his furniture fits perfectly into classic interiors filled with antiques. Why? First, because antiques and modern sculptures made of aluminum are completely different. And secondly, because both are very decorative. Yes, the texture of polished metal becomes such thanks to a thousandfold reflections of light. Cold and shimmering, this furniture seemed to us winter and very festive.