Ner-Tamid- / Eternal-Flame, 2008 Radiant film
Magen-David Studio-18-NYC
Ner Tamid : Reinventing Ritual
3M Color Radiant Film and Wire
Ritual: The ner tamid (eternal light), a perpetually illuminated lamp, hovers directly above the ark in every synagogue to symbolize the presence of God. In previous times the source of the light was burning oil, but today gas, electricity, or solar power may generate light.
Reinvention: The artist employs a flexible treated film, used in industrial and architectural contexts as well as for specialty and novelty items like gift bows, for its special ability to reflect light.
Delight, wonder, and awe are the conditions necessary for the spiritual reception and recognition of the Divine in our midst. The world as we know it is a shadow, a great and splendiferously projecting reflection.
Cheselyn Amato is an interdisciplinary visual artist, experiential designer, sanctity-imbued space/place designer, and a sound and spoken-text improvisational performer committed to the celebration and healing of self, others, humanity, the world, and the cosmos. She makes work to constantly rediscover love and loving and to keep the embers of transformational possibility stoked. All the work is made as cue, prop and instigator of the experience of presence and sanctity amidst the contradiction and suffering that also attends to the human experience. She works across visual disciplines including two- and three-dimensional phenomena as well as time arts (sound, movement, color and light effects, projection and video) to effect living circumstances where the ordinary and the extraordinary may interact.
Cheselyn Amato is based in Davis, California