Ivy-Edera Dalya luttwak
Dalya Luttwak, an Israeli-American artist, was born in Israel in the northern Galilee and studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She lives and works in Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA.
Since 2007, Luttwak has been making large-scale steel sculptures that symbolically represent the roots of various types of plants and trees. To forge his naturalistic yet inventive creations, the artist works from actual bulbs he digs out of the earth, as well as using his own photographs and delicate drawings. The aim is to discover the hidden beauty of roots, to explore the relationships between what grows above the ground and what grows invisibly below. Luttwak's dynamic sculptures reveal what nature prefers to hide; her desire has been to ‘discover and rediscover roots even when they are hidden, indeed especially when they are hidden’. The meaning of his sculptures is actually rooted in his own family origins, in the Czechoslovakia of World War II and the new state of Israel. But her lyrical, fantastical and sometimes haunting works defy literal interpretation, both personal and botanical. Indeed, while she is attentive to biological accuracy, it is the dramatic transformation of roots in size, material, color and position that give her metaphorical significance.
She realized for the SyArt Gallery in Sorrento a site-specific work ‘Ivy-Edera’, a painted steel sculpture 11 metres high and placed in Via San Francesco, 25 Palazzo Gargiulo.
Also of note is the work ‘Global Warning: The First Tropical Mangrove’ that was commissioned to the artist for the 16th edition of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. The sculpture, installed at the Marinaressa Garden, represents the complex root system of a mangrove tree. The artist has long been fascinated by this plant formation, which is adapted to survive in harsh environments. Mangroves thrive where salt, temperature and water levels vary with the tide. Their roots rest their pores on top of the muddy water, forming huge structures that disperse waves and trap sediment, protecting coastlines from hurricanes, tsunamis and erosion. After Venice, the city of Sorrento welcomes the work. The sculpture, installed at the entrance to Villa Fiorentino, draws new life, weaving a dialogue with the vegetation, scents and atmosphere of this magical place. The work is presented in 2019 by the SyArt Festival Sorrento, during its third edition (11 May-9 June).
