One of our greatest longings as human-beings is to live a life of meaning beyond the seemingly insignificant acts that constitute the day-to-day. Will the sum of our work, our relationships, our choices, be greater than the parts? Artist Rebecca Silberman examines this age-old question while reflecting on our innate desire for life to “ultimately, be, a transcendent journey.” Silberman notes, “We make objects and images or communicate through a personal narrative, but the hope is that there is some larger meaning and force at work. When it comes together, it should be a ‘true’ and poetic account, where the meaning is larger than the accumulated material archive.”

This accumulated material archive that Silberman refers to manifests in her work as written and illustrated journals which are neatly housed in cabinets or upright libraries made by the artist from found materials. In addition to her journal cabinet installations are works on paper representing studies in the form of single pages and folios from the journals.

The technique that Silberman uses to create most of her works on paper begins with photographic images that she covers with iridescent paint and other media with the added detail of sewing and in some cases nails suspending string demarcating boundaries. The geneses of Silberman’s somewhat introspective yet provocative works can be found in dream imagery, walks through rural landscapes, myth, Jewish folklore (Golem), the artist’s personal background, and travels abroad.