Corona in my life
This series began form during the first time we were all locked in homes due to an increase in the number of sick COVID19
At first, I did not have clear pictures because I was not sure what I wanted to say. The words within me failed to complete a sentence. Like surrealist poetry I had different parts that fail to connect and build a clear picture. It took me a while to build sketches and see images in my head because it took me a while to figure out what “landed” on me and then I realized that what made it harder for me was not that I was locked in the house but that I did not have the minimum privacy I needed. Everyone was in home non-stop, there was not a moment where I could breathe. I could no longer sit in the studio and listen to music as loud as I needed to reduce the noise in my head. Every time I left my small studio (which is in my house) to make coffee there was traffic everywhere in the house. The kids came in and out of the studio non-stop. There was no free moment for more than half an hour in a row to work. This is the thing that broke me, I felt I could no longer with this situation, and also that I could not do anything against it. The government locked us all in houses and we could not go out
As the days and weeks that passed, I was able to find my time to work. I only worked at night until the morning light in the studio, which was very tiring and also, I had to keep quiet which is not exactly my usual form of work but there was no other choice. But thanks to that, images began to form in me, and the works were created with each passing week. Because we could not go out much outside during the closure and it was difficult to buy equipment for the studio, I used what was around me. It was challenging. I'm used to building an images in my head and then looking for my necessary materials outside the studio until I find them no matter how far it is from home
The closures in Israel came back again and again and the restrictions did not stop and this situation suffocated me even more. During this year I felt like everything was closing in on me and the project was dragging. I felt like I was raising dust. Like an old sofa with layers of dust that has accumulated over years in a closed house that has not seen daylight. I also could not see daylight. Even when I was out of the house, when I went for a walk in the nearby forest it felt darker and darker than usual. I went back to read a bit in the New Testament the texts of the gospel of Matthew (the Synoptic Apocalypse), and the passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Lucas that caught my attention more than anything. Despite my difficulty in maintaining sanity and balance during this period and the religion that does not help or strengthen me I chose to use colors from Christianity and symbolizes not only my mood but also clarifies the images. The red which symbolizes among other things blood that I used to describe suffering and anguish as in the pictures of the tears and strings on the mouth. The purple that symbolizes silence and repentance I used to paint the eye stripe in the picture with the inverted crown. The stripe was painted like the stripe the Scots would paint their faces before a battle. Pink which symbolizes remorse and fasting I used several pictures including the picture with the suffocating plastic bag and the cross on the forehead which symbolizes my remorse for myself. The black I used mourning for myself during this closing period and the gold used on holidays I reversed its function and created a gold hanging rope