Works on Paper

Kol Isha (Without Words)

Clear acrylic sheet, bolts, paper, ink.

Included in the 6th Jerusalem Biennale, this piece is a segment of paper from the seismograph from the work Kol Isha (or If Energy Cannot Be Created or Destroyed What Happens When We Try to Silence a Voice?)

The work was originally intended for an exhibition scheduled to open on November 9th 2023, but a month earlier the Israel-Hamas war erupted, following the pogrom on October 7th. This work gets its title from The New York Times article from Sunday December 31st 2023, “‘Screams Without Words’: Sexual Violence on October 7th.”

Before the war, the work was placed in this show to critique the right-wing Israeli government’s anti-feminist legislation. After the war the context changed, the work’s meaning has to relate to the world in which it now exists. Since this piece and the others in the series are about repressed voices, that idea itself poses a larger question, one that can’t be answered through binary thinking. One that can’t be answered with violence.

24 in. x 48 in. x 0.5 in.