Woven, Like A Whirlwind

Birch europly

90” x 90” x ¾”

2025

Images 7-10 by Andrea Lonas

In 2023, Levine created a monumental project, Carve: The Mystic is Nourished from this Sphere for a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. The main sculptural element of the work consists of a nine-foot wooden concave shape embedded into the gallery wall. On the surface of the vessel, Levine engraved the notes that visitors to the CJM exhibition left in a designated box that invited them to share the grief they may be experiencing in their lives. Mimicking their handwriting, these carvings - in over six languages and many drawings - articulate names of the dead, various global calamities, deceased pets, lost time, illnesses, and more. At the close of the exhibition, Levine composed Seven Days of Care–a week-long series of artistic and spiritual events focused on grief held at the site of Carve at the CJM in July 2023. 

Of the main concepts in Kabbalah – the Jewish mystical philosophy – is that of Sefirot (‘emanations’ in Hebrew) that represent the ten attributes through which God manifests. The Sefirot are traditionally depicted as ten interconnected spheres that make up the Eitz Chaim (‘Tree of Life’ in Hebrew). Carve’s full title is derived from one of the sefirot called Chokmah (‘wisdom’ in Hebrew), which is said to “nourish the mystic.” By contextualizing the act Levine performs in Carve within the sefirot tradition, she signals that by empathizing with one another’s grief, we are nurturing our mystical wisdom.

Woven, Like A Whirlwind,  Levine’s newest work created for the OJMCHE exhibition, echoes in its form the interlocking spheres and incorporates quotes from Carve grief notes. The rings create an illusion of movement and give form to the cyclical and continuous flow between loss and renewal. These works poignantly embody both the uniquely solitary process of grief and its true ubiquity.