[Photo Journal] Blackfield Installation at Astana Museum, Kazakhstan

Myra here.

I had the privilege of visiting Astana, Kazakhstan October of last year when I was invited to be one of the Keynote Speakers for the International Educational Policy, Practice, and Research Conference. I was glad to have a chance to see the sights a little bit before I went back home to Singapore.

Blackfield Installation at the Astana Museum in Kazakhstan

Beautiful, isn’t it?

According to the artist’s note, this “blackfield installation” is meant to be a “sandy field, ‘sown with plants’ in the amount of 20,000 pieces, cut from stainless steel…”

“Each figure, whether it is a flower or a blade of grass, is painted by hand and represents an exact copy of the plants from the collections of Victorian encyclopaedias of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries…”

“One side of the figure is painted black…

… and the other shimmers with all the colours.”

“Life and death are always there, always together…”

“This is the metaphysics of Zadok Ben-David’s life. It took the artist three years of hard work to create these installation with the participation of ten assistants.”

According to Zadok Ben-David: “Blackfield is more of psychological installation, very moody, developing and changing while you walk along…”

“It has also black and colour…”

“… symbolizing state of mind, leaving a choice by showing both sides of the coin.”

I agree that it does create that magical disturbance, that strange awakening of being awashed by colours and being stripped bare of it. Truly beautiful.