“Collage is the ultimate playful technique,” said Israeli artist Hanoch Piven. “You cannot make a collage on a direct path; you need to wander around. When you put it all together you create something new.”
This is how Piven described his art during his TEDx Jerusalem lecture — “Living the Collage Life” — in December 2012. And it describes the kinds of things he will be doing and helping others do in Milwaukee this month.
Piven will lead a free community art project at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 9, at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
Brought to town by the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, Piven will guide children and families of all ages as they create a collage of everyday objects that is reflective of themselves or their family.
“Hanoch Piven is one of the most talented and interesting artists who works today in Israel and we’re fortunate that he can make a stop here in Milwaukee and work with our community,” said Michal Makov-Peled, community shlichah (emissary from Israel) with the Israel Center.
Piven’s collage technique prompts children and adults to experiment with common everyday objects to create their own works of art. Along with showcasing his work, the hands-on workshop gives attendees the opportunity to learn and create.
Piven also will tell how he began creating his internationally recognized art and encourage everyone to be artists for the day.
“This is an opportunity to participate in a quality family time experience,” Piven said in an email interview with The Chronicle. “This will be part game, part art creation and part family discussion. All of it will happen within a playful, fun and enabling space.
“Masked as a game, this will be an opportunity for the family members to ask themselves what is it that they are made of — individually and as a family.”
Piven’s approach involves trying different things while allowing for mistakes to make adaptations while creating flexibility.
“It’s about forgiving yourself when you make mistakes, and playfulness lets you do that,” Piven said in the lecture. “Collage really taught me how to live my life in a more flexible way.”
Prior to each participant taking home their collage, Piven will photograph each piece to create one large-scale image that will become permanent art at the JCC, along with its inclusion in a major art installation at Beit Hatfutsot-Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.
Piven’s “Family Matters: What Families Are Made Of” will consist of 3,600 “family portraits” and will span 40 feet by 10 feet.
Makov-Peled said several types of common household objects will be provided to make the collages, made possible by Milwaukee Jewish Day School students led by art teacher Rena Porat, along with Hillel Academy and families participating in the JCC’s Gan Ami early education programs.
Attendees are invited to bring whatever they have at home to add to the mix, which also gives them the opportunity to choose objects they feel reflect who they are as individuals and families.
Items suggested include bottle tops, buttons, screws, stickers, pins, old small toys, little figures, combs, hairpins, feathers, old computer parts, nails — essentially anything one desires to use.
When asked what he liked most about conducting these workshops, Piven wrote that the “transformation that happens to people is very beautiful to notice; people arrive curious and a bit guarded and slowly they open up and totally get the idea and allow themselves to play.”
“I have a great job — to make people play,” he added.
Piven hopes that children and families will leave the event with the realization “that anybody can do art, that we are all creative, that drawing is not the only way to create art, that words are not the only way to express ideas and that playfulness is important in order to overcome obstacles.” According to information on his website, PivenWorld.com, Piven has created illustrations for the last 20 years that have appeared in magazines such as Newsweek, Time and Rolling Stone.
He has been conducting workshops across the globe since 2003. These have been embraced by educators, art therapists and management consultants.
In Israel, Piven has collaborated with the daily newspaper Ha’aretz and has a TV show on the pre-K channel HOP TV. His method has been implemented in many kindergartens in Israel. His books and smart phone apps can be found worldwide.
In his TEDx Jerusalem lecture, Piven explained how he worked with army veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Playfulness through the use of collage was allowing people to tell a story through art that may be too difficult to say through words,” he said in the lecture. “When we play, we are free.”
For further information, visit MilwaukeeJewish.org/Israel. Sponsored by the Israel Center and the JCC, this is part of the Israel@65 series of activities being sponsored by the Israel Center to celebrate 65 years of Israeli independence.
Jeff Jones is marketing and communications manager for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.