Great Bear
2022
Installation- perspex pool, origami boat from wax paper, digital collage and sounds from space, 2022
‘Each winter a large puddle forms in the amphitheatre near the kibbutz. I go there with the children. Together we build a little raft, or paper boat, and they set sail. There is something in that moment of setting out on a journey, a shift of energy, even when the water is not water, but the heavens, the universe and infinity. A fragile moment of courage is needed to embark on a voyage. To dream.’
A large polar bear rests on rocks from Mountain of Saffaron* engravings made thousands of years ago decorate the stones. She lies beneath the Great Bear constellation and above leaves from a fig tree. In the black pool a small white origami paper boat sails. This installation is a collection of thoughts about my home in the Negev and the ways I am connected to the land. I ponder on the things that create roots, identity and sense of belonging. About the fine connections between times, past present and future, circular movements and dream states, and the ability to create new worlds.
* Mountain of Saffaron (Jabal Ideid) is a mountain in the southwest Negev desert in Israel. A number of scholars have contemplated the possibility of it being the biblical Mount Sinai. Following this theory, Emmanuel Anati excavated at the mountain, and discovered that it was a major paleolithic cult centre, with the surrounding plateau covered with shrines, altars, stone circles, stone pillars, and over 40,000 rock engravings.
