2021
Old wooden chairs, old upholstery fabric, steel springs, iron rods
Various dimensions
Photography: Meidad Suchowolski
Five Avoidable Sins are offences against our fellow human beings – wrongdoings that could, in fact, be prevented.
The work consists of five old, used chairs from Tel Aviv and from Um El-Fahem, newly upholstered with the fabric that once covered the furniture in the artist`s parents’ home. That fabric belonged to pieces sent from Uruguay to Israel after the family emigrated, hastily, under the guise of a family vacation, from which they never returned. It occurred upon her father’s release from political imprisonment, out of fear of reprisals by the military regime.
On the seat of each chair, a single word is sewn – formed from iron rods wrapped in the same fabric: War, Abuse, Rape, Neglect, Torture. Visitors are invited to sit, so that a slight physical discomfort is felt before the mind apprehends the faint, almost hidden word beneath them.
In the exhibition at Umm El-Fahem the chairs stood as witnesses, dispersed throughout the space, calling upon viewers to become active participants in the prevention of cruelty.
