Bernie Fink was born in 1942 in South Africa.
On immigrating to Israel in 1962 he joined Kibbutz Yizrael, where he lives today. His career as a sculptor began by chance, when he came across a large stone while plowing the fields, and felt the need “to continue to work on it”, as he himself said.
Since then, Fink continued to sculpt in stone, combining different materials like iron and old objects in his works.
In 1977 Fink went for a year of training to Pietrasanta, Tuscany, which was considered one of Italy’s largest centers for stone. On his return from Italy, he established his own workshop at Kibbutz Yizrael, where he creates and has qualified generations of students.
The main theme of Fink’s work is the relationship that exists between space – both close and cosmic – and the envelope that defines space and creates a form from it.
Fink mainly deals with environmental and monumental sculpture and many of his works are displayed throughout the country.
Bernie Fink’s sculpture consists of two rows of large flat stones facing each other, which form an arched path on the ground.
The sculpture reiterates the arched shape of the cliff, which descends into the crater on the edge of which it stands.
Each row consists of seven, upright stones, and as one proceeds to the center of the arc, they seem as if they are collapsing, like a series of dominoes. The center of the sculpture is a huge gap just like a window to a view.
The arc element leads the visitor’s mind and eye into the symbolic window and the view from it.
The overall shape of the sculpture, intensified by the illusion of movement of the stones gradually collapsing, is perhaps a symbolic, even poetic, rendition of the geology of the crater and the story of its creation.
