2022

Arad, Israel

Site-specific installation, made during a residency at the Arad Contemporary Art Center. Paper scrolls with ink, charcoal and other media, held by stones. Scrolls range from approx. 2 to 40 meters

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For three years I drew on paper scrolls to record emotions and existential states. It was a private practice, a way of translating inner landscapes onto paper. The scrolls piled up 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 imagined, and there I began the installation.
I rolled the scrolls down the rocks and met not only the burning sun and the gusting wind but also my own emotional intensity. Each scroll unfurled with a sudden presence that startled even me. The wind fought back, lifting the scrolls I had arranged with stones. Then, for one moment, it went still, as if the land had received what it needed.
In Hebrew the work is called Cheshbon Nefesh, “soul accounting”: a deep inner reckoning in which one faces oneself fully and honestly. The installation became an initiation and a ritual of release. Once the scrolls had been seen, opened and held by the elements, they emptied. Their burden was no longer mine to carry. I left that place feeling lighter, and free.