Tamar Levy Alfasi
Autodidact. Had solo exhibitions at the C.B.IT Center and Arbel Gallery. Hundreds of meters of iron wire were manually cut into tens of thousands of pieces, and these were processed into loops and woven one by one in latitudes and longitudes to form tapestries of various sizes. Levy Alfasi calls these tapestries "Zarbias", a term that reminded her of her grandmother's work in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. There, for the sustenance of her family, she tirelessly spun threads of sheep wool and wove them into rugs using a loom. The wool was not dyed and the rugs remained in their natural shade, and so their embellishments were created using textures which extruded out from the rug. Inspired by her grandmother, Levy Alfasi also toils, engaging in repetitive, meditative and patient handwork. The coarse and industrial material becomes delicate and aesthetic in her hands, the technical becomes personal and the traditional becomes contemporary. Relying on hard-working female traditions, Levy Alfasi weaves soft metal fabrics which depict mythical images as well as timeless ornamentation, using hands which intuitively know their craft.
