Akute Magazine, Issue Sixxx, December 2013
Article on Artist Tal Avitzur

Akute magazine, Issue Sixxx, December 2013.
Akute magazine, Issue Sixxx, December 2013.
Akute Magazine, Issue Sixxx, December 2013, Table of Contents
Akute Magazine, Issue Sixxx, December 2013, Table of Contents
Article about Tal Avitzur article in Akute Magazine, 2013.
Article about Tal Avitzur article in Akute Magazine, 2013.
Photos from article about Tal Avitzur in Akute Magazine, 2013.
Photos from article about Tal Avitzur in Akute Magazine, 2013.

I received an email at 1am from a guy in the States who goes by the name, Tal Avitzur. Expecting a whole pile of high res photos of the California sunset, I was surprised when I was looking at the coolest recycled robotic lights and ornaments seen anywhere. Everything has a character and as creepy as some may seem, Tal has found the individuality of something that would look just like junk to others. From a mathematician to a recycled junk artist, Tal is proof that there is more to everyone who works for the man, there's an art in everything and it's just a matter of time until you find your "thing" you'll become passionate about.

I grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania in a family where the sciences were emphasized more than the arts. My father, uncle and brothers are engineers and my sister, a doctor. The art world opened up to me when I moved to California for college, worked for painter Irma Cavat, and also lived in her large communal artist compound. There was a constant stream of artists coming and going. I found their lifestyles and attitudes very appealing. It was obvious they had discovered something that brought them much joy. I consider myself lucky to have also known and worked for sculptor George Rickey and ceramicist Beatrice Wood. After earning a degree in math from UC Santa Barbara I worked for the US Navy in Washington, DC. My job was to help determine the best collection of spare parts carriers should keep stocked in order to maximize readiness of planes. However the call of Santa Barbara was too great. So I returned, got a job teaching part-time, which left ample time for artistic pursuits. I guess my creativity first appeared when I bought a fixer-upper and spent many years on the remodel. My builder friend and I had the attitude of keeping it fun, and that we did. A lot of attention went into small details. The house became my canvas. During the house remodel we tried to use as many recycled materials as possible. I began going to scrap metal and salvage yards to gather objects for different building projects. Little did I know that visiting these yards would become an obsession. My town of Santa Barbara, California has many research labs, a large university, and a harbor, so it’s pretty amazing what shows up at the scrap yards. It’s lucky for me that brass, aluminum and other metals have value, so they end up at the scrap yards rather than in the trash. I was finding all kinds of cool objects that I didn’t need for the remodel but I knew if I didn’t “rescue” them from the yard they would be smelted and gone forever. I have a fondness for vintage items, like tools, kitchen appliances, vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, electric fans and scientific equipment. Based on the designs of some of these objects (circa 1940s through 1970s) it seems as if many of their creators had secret desires to be building rocket ships and robots. The original use of a vast majority of the spare parts in my inventory is a mystery to me. Once word got out in town about what I do, parts also began magically appearing at my front gate. Before I knew it, my gardening shed became full of all kinds of weird stuff. A friend commented that one could build a pretty cool set for a Dr. Frankenstein movie from all the stuff I collected.

I began slowly collecting parts 15 years and the pace has steadily increased. The sculpture building started about six years ago in order to justify my obsession with accumulating strange objects. I didn’t want to be classified as just another crazy, compulsive hoarder. After I bring parts to the studio, they are cleaned, disassembled (if necessary), sometimes polished, then sorted. Each robot or piece begins with finding the personality in an object, then test-fitting combinations together, and cutting, drilling and grinding until reaching a natural-looking fit. Many hours are spent taking things apart and figuring out how to put things together that were never meant to be connected. The workshop bench usually has a few different projects going on at any time. Sometimes, sculptures need to be put aside for months, or even years, while waiting for just the right salvaged part. Inspiration comes from a youth filled with a healthy dose of science fiction, mythology, comic books, and still having the playful mind of a child. Making these one-of-a-kind, whimsical, found-object sculptures has allowed me to indulge my passion for creating art, while giving new life to discarded objects, and perhaps preserving a bit of industrial history. I owe a lot to my very accepting and loving wife and her unconditional support. Not to mention that she is much better than I am with a set of tools. Making these sculptures is loads of fun and I can’t imagine not doing it.

Text from Article About Tal Avitzur in December 2013, Issue Sixxx of Akute Magazine