2022
Arad, Israel

Site-specific Installation
 

My first paper scrolls were created in 2021 as a way to record emotions and existential states — a private practice of translating inner landscapes onto paper. Over time, the scrolls accumulated in my studio like silent companions, each carrying compressed layers of pain, memory, and reflection.

Eventually, I felt the need to take them to the desert. I had a specific place in mind — a narrow crevice between cliffs that, long ago, held a flowing river. A river of water, and perhaps a river of emotions. When I arrived, I found the exact high point I had envisioned. It was there that I began the installation. As I rolled the scrolls down from the rocks, I was confronted not only by the raw forces of nature — the burning sun and gusting winds — but by my own emotional intensity. Each roll unfurled with a sudden presence, startling even me. The wind fought back fiercely, lifting the scrolls I had carefully arranged with stones. But at one moment, the winds stilled — as if the land had received what it needed.

In Hebrew, this work is called "חשבון נפש" (Cheshbon Nefesh) — a term that means “soul accounting.” It refers to a deep process of inner reckoning, facing oneself fully and honestly. This installation became an initiation, a ritual of release. Once the scrolls were seen, opened, and held by the elements, they emptied. Their burden was no longer mine to carry. I left that place feeling lighter — free.