A flame burns eternal

MARK WINSTON

It is a stunningly engaging and vibrant sculpture. It emerged from rock through the hands of British Columbia sculptor Lee Gass and, for me, it redefined the message of the Ner Tamid (Eternal Light).

The sculpture, which is part of Gass' new exhibition at his Vancouver gallery, is aptly named "Eternal Flame." It's a remarkable piece, carved from a subtly varied yellow-orange piece of honeycomb calcite quarried in northwestern Utah. It is flame-like in shape, flickering from the interplay of light moving through its fractures, points, edges and flat surface planes.

It was not sculpted with a synagogue in mind, but I saw it immediately as a Ner Tamid, the Eternal Light that first glowed in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, the never-extinguished flame that then burned pure olive oil. Today, every synagogue has a similar light above the ark, generally an electric bulb, often flickering to appear like a flame. As in ancient times, it burns continually to remind us God's presence and covenant with Israel.

"Eternal Flame" is technically not a Ner Tamid. Although it changes the qualities of light, it doesn't produce it. In the dark, it's only an inert rock, but its messages are profound when light enters.

Gass recognized the possibilities in this particular hunk of calcite as soon as he saw it, while participating in a stone-sculpting symposium at Camp Washington, founded 40 years ago in Mt. Vernon, Wash., by a rabbi and a priest who wanted to promote peace and brotherhood. Gass himself is a former zoology professor at the University of British Columbia, renowned as one of Canada's finest teachers and scientists. His academic career was defined by facilitating the emergence of knowledge and ability from his students. He retired to Quadra Island a number of years ago to sculpt, changing his medium from students to rocks, but maintaining his interest in eliciting meaning from the world around him.

It was love at first sight for Gass when he saw this raw piece of calcite: "I was thinking and feeling relationships between light, translucency, color and form. The form evolved partly because of the shape of the original stone, but mainly to allow light to penetrate on the broad convex upper surface and be transmitted through to the concave, shaded, lower surfaces."

It was Gass' wife, Lucretia Schanfarber, who first expressed vocally the Ner Tamid-like qualities emerging from the rock, without knowing anything about Ner Tamid. "At a certain point, early in its creation, I started to relate to its shape as a flame; the energy of the colors also enhanced my feeling of it as a flame that never burned out," she explained. "I began to experience it as a symbol of the eternal flame – our gift from God – burning within each of us. The cubist effect of the stone instils me with a sense of wholeness, unity and harmonization in the face of apparent fragmentation. Simply gazing upon it brings me to a deeper awareness of these truths."

"Eternal Flame" reminds us that while we are not the producers of light, we are its interpreters. The stone's fractures and cracks refract perfect light and, like salt on challah, take us back to the destruction of the Temple and our responsibility as Jews to work towards healing a fractured world.

"Eternal Flame" is a sculpture about healing. The fractures could have split the rock apart, while in the earth or when being worked by Gass. Instead, the intense forces of geology and the delicate care taken by its sculptor combined to retain this piece intact: fractured, but whole.

This is a beautiful piece, letting the light in through rock that has been enhanced by a remarkable sculptor. It belongs in a synagogue, not instead of the Ner Tamid but in synergy with it. Ner Tamid connects us with God's eternal presence; "Eternal Flame" reminds us that we interpret that light and, in an imperfect world, it is our choices that determine what we do with the light that enters our lives.

To see this and other works by Gass, go to www.leegass.com.

Mark Winston is the academic director and fellow at the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University.

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