The multi-disciplinary exhibit features Eshkol's wall tapestries, or wall carpets, and her dance compositions in a film installation by Los Angeles multi media artist Sharon Lockhart.
(I'll write write about Eshkol's choreography in a separate post.)
Eshkol was 83 years old when she died in 2007. During her life she created about 1,800 wall carpets, which she began making in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. By this time she was well known in Israel for her innovative dance work and people throughout the country sent her clothing, aprons, umbrellas, and scraps of fabrics for incorporation into her wall carpets. Eshkol only wanted to use recycled materials, clothing no longer being used. Every scrap had its own story. No new clothing or fabrics were used.
Eshkol's process was about using the textiles with as little alteration as possible. So although seams were undone, the clothing pieces were left as whole as possible when sewn into the tapestry design. When you look closely at some of her tapestries, you can clearly see a skirt, a shirt, a collar, etc.
LACMA explains her pieces as "evocative of the fragmented and disorienting experience of war, the layered fabrics bring together divergent and overlapping stories, cumulatively resulting in a map of Israeli material culture."
Although her work tells an Israeli story, it could easily be mistaken for American quilting. The American folk craft of so-called crazy quilting results in similar displays of mix matching and wild combinations of fabric and
design.
Given Eshkol's dance background, the movement in her designs is not surprising. Los Angeles multi media artist Sharon Lockhart was drawn to Eshkol's tapestries and her choreography. She apparently saw a correlation between the two, resulting in her film installation currently at LACMA, which brings together both of Eshkol's talents.
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